Kamiko-Sama
by fringeperson
Summary: Supernatural intrusions on the life of a girl attending high school. Kagome has been there, done that, and found out that there was no T-shirt. She is not going to now stand aside and just let it happen to someone else who doesn't know what they're getting into, not without offering to help, anyway. Don't own. Eventual T/K. Complete.
1. Chapter 1

Kagome had been out for a late-evening stroll. She preferred going for her walks at night these days. It wasn't the same as being able to go for a walk in the Sengoku of course, but there were fewer people out at night, and there was a stillness that was soothing. Even if pollution and an over-abundance of city lights prevented her from being able to see the stars as clearly as she would like.

It had been the better part of a decade since she'd last seen the other side of the well though. Her quest was complete; the jewel was whole, Naraku defeated, and after much meditation she had hit upon the right wish to remove the Shikon no Tama from existence. That things would be as they were supposed to be.

That had just so happened to include her being on _this_ side of the well, and unable to travel through any more, and strangely enough had also prompted Souta – her little brother who, ever since his first soccer game, had wanted to play at the FIFA World Cup – to start getting more serious about his role as the male heir of the family. As the person who _would_ inherit the shrine, even though Kagome was the eldest (and the one with the spiritual powers, not that she'd ever actually explicitly mentioned that to her family).

Kagome had applied herself to her studies like a person possessed after that. She'd been scraping by well enough with only minimal interaction with her teachers (even if the stress of maintaining a passing grade had given her a few premature grey hairs), but once she'd been back at school full-time, she'd started flying through. Despite having been held back a year for absences, she was soon skipping up. She'd graduated top of her class, gone to Tokyo-U, and there she'd studied both business and education. She wanted to run her own business, but a) she wasn't quite sure what sort of business she wanted to run, and b) she knew that it would take time and money to get a business going, so learning at the same time to be a teacher... well, that would give her an income until she could sort out the business dream.

"...you must hate him intensely for running away like that!" a voice broke through the stillness of the night.

Kagome looked down from the sky. She hadn't exactly been watching where she was going as she walked, much more interested in just walking and thinking.

There was a girl, wrapped up in scarf and jacket with bags beside her, and a man who wore a pair of round glasses. No, wait. Not a man. Kagome could feel his spiritual powers from where she stood a good ten feet away still.

"Well, I'm embarrassed to admit it," the... god? Yep, those were the divine powers of an honest-to-god (and damn that pun) kami. The kami said. "But I abandoned my home. It's been decades since then," he admitted. "There's no telling how everyone is doing. Tomoe's bound to jump-kick me as soon as I show my face."

"But still, at least you have a home to go back to," the girl pointed out. "Sounds kinda awesome. I don't even have that any more," she said, and laughed in a nervous, slightly self-depreciating sort of way.

"I can give you my home," the kami offered. "I don't mind."

"Huh?" the girl asked, and blinked in surprise.

Kagome frowned, and marched over even as the kami stood.

"The house shouldn't be left unattended forever," he was saying, "and if you were there, I wouldn't have to worry about it any more. Most importantly..." he bent, and set a hand on the girl's head.

He was just about to kiss her brow when Kagome reached them and grabbed his ear sharply.

"Ow!" the kami yelped.

"Most importantly, she's a teenager," Kagome informed him sharply, "and you have responsibilities, Kami-sama."

"Um... I'm sorry but..." the girl tried hesitantly.

Kagome gave the girl a smile. "I'm Higurashi Kagome," she said. "Pleased to meet you."

"Uh, could you please let go of my ear?" the kami requested.

"Are you going to try and palm off your god-hood on a teenager again?" Kagome countered shortly.

The kami laughed nervously.

"Teenagers don't have time for supernatural adventures," Kagome informed him bluntly. "High school is exhausting enough. Besides, how old are you?" she asked the girl.

"Seventeen," the girl answered.

"Which means you're not a legal adult yet," Kagome said with a nod, and turned back to the kami she was still holding by the ear. "So she's also going to need a guardian, not just a place to live."

"She is... you _both_ are more worthy of my house than I am," the kami insisted, though his voice was soft and more begging than commanding.

Kagome sighed. "Fine," she allowed, and released her hold on his ear. "Can you split it?"

The kami beamed a bright smile. "Yes," he agreed, and straightened up. He pressed a soft kiss to first Kagome's brow, then the girl's.

While the girl raised a hand to her forehead where she'd been kissed, the kami pulled out a slip of paper. "Go to this place I've mapped out, and tell them Mikage sent you," the kami said. "They will be sure to welcome you."

And with that, he was gone.

Kagome raised an eyebrow at the empty space where he had been.

"This from someone who said he'd be drop-kicked as soon as he returned home?" she quipped sarcastically. "Right. Sure. Well, I guess this means I can stop paying rent at least," Kagome decided as she considered the rather scrappy little map she'd been handed.

"Uh, what just happened?" the girl asked nervously.

Kagome smiled. "You met a kami," she answered. "What's you're name?"

"Momozono Nanami. Uh... he was a kami?" the girl queried.

Kagome nodded. "Yep. Not really all that impressive, are they?" she joked. "Come on, let's check out this place that was just turned over to our joint ownership by a kami," she suggested, and picked up one of Nanami's bags. "If it's too run down, you can stay in my apartment."

"Oh, uh, thank you," Nanami said softly, picked up her other bag, and followed after Kagome.

~oOo~

The shrine was, as Kagome had suggested, run down. The absence of the kami that was supposed to live there had not done the place any favours, but... at the same time, it didn't look as bad as it could have. Kagome breathed deeply and spread out her senses.

Ah.

There was youki about the place. Actually maintaining the building. A tingle ran down Kagome's spine at the sensation. She hadn't felt youki in way too long. Most yokai didn't interact with ningen any more, after all.

"Lord Mikage?" a little voice, child-like but echoing, called out hopefully.

"Welcome back home, Lord Mikage," another small voice rejoined, also child-like and echoing, and very pleased.

Nanami screamed in fright as red flames leapt up around them, the cheerful exclamation of "Lord Mikage!" ringing out from within them.

Poor girl fell backwards into the building.

Kagome stayed outside though. She knew what that was, and she waited, patiently, for the wisps to form properly.

"Lord Mikage!" they exclaimed again, and suddenly there were two little bodies floating towards her.

"Actually, I'm Kagome," she corrected. "Mikage has decided to shirk his duties indefinitely. I'm sorry."

Two sets of tiny shoulders slumped, but those little masked faces looked up at her so dolefully.

Kagome collected them into her arms, even as she ignored the yelling and screaming that was coming from the building behind her – the one that Nanami had fallen into.

"Now, what are your names? And Mikage-sama said something about Tomoe? Who's Tomoe?" she asked them.

"Master Tomoe is the familiar of this shrine," said the wisp that wore a smiling face-mask. "I am Onikiri."

"But, if Lord Mikage isn't the Land God any more, then the contract is broken, and will need to be re-established. Either with him or another, because a Land God must have a familiar," the wisp with a slightly frog-like mask supplied. "I am Kotetsu."

Kagome nodded. "And how does the familiar contract work?" she questioned.

"You must kiss Lord Tomoe on the lips, and he will be bound to you as your familiar, bound to obey your will!" Kotetsu declared instantly.

Kagome nodded. Not the strangest thing she'd ever heard, and it was way too late for her to be precious about first kisses. That had happened a long time ago for her. Hah! In more ways than one.

She released the two wisps from her arms and turned to go into the dilapidated old shrine. Nanami was yelling at... Ooh. A smile formed on Kagome's face as she fought back the urge to laugh. Oh, the irony! Silver hair, cute ears... but a fox, like her dear Shippo, rather than a dog.

She strode confidently between the two and, surprised as they both were by her presence, she cupped the fox's face in her hands and pressed her lips to his.

A pair of glowing rings flashed momentarily around his wrists.

"You must be Tomoe," she said with a soft smile as she withdrew her mouth from his, satisfied at having felt the magic lock into place. She almost couldn't believe how good it felt to be around youki and magic and spiritual energies again. Ten years was a long time to go with only her own spiritual powers for company.

"I am," he agreed grudgingly, and then he looked between Nanami and Kagome. "Wait... two?!"

"Mm," Kagome hummed in agreement. "Now, if you please Tomoe, would to pull your youki back in? I want to see exactly how much work this shrine _really_ needs."

The fox stiffened, and she could see the anger behind his lovely violet eyes as he realised he was bound to her, but he obediently inclined his head and pulled his youki back into himself.

The shrine shimmered, and the run-down visage faded in favour of the shrine's true state.

Kagome winced. It was even worse than she had initially suspected it would be.

"This is going to take a lot of work," she said flatly as she looked around, then sighed. "But, that can wait for the morning. For tonight, we'll be staying at my apartment. Tomorrow I want a list of everything that needs to be fixed. From floorboards to roof-tiles to plumbing and electricity and everything in between. If I could get a blueprint of the shrine with measurements, that would be great too."

The fox, the two wisps, and the teenager all stared at Kagome in mute shock.

"Pack up your things Tomoe," Kagome instructed. "You'll be staying with me too, until we can get the shrine fixed up. Onikiri, Kotetsu, would you both be darlings and start on those lists for me tonight?" she requested, even as Tomoe mechanically began to walk off to another part of the shrine.

"Yes, Lady Kagome!" Onikiri chirped happily, and brought a hand up to salute.

"We'll get started right away!" Kotetsu agreed as he mimicked his compatriot's posture.

The two then flew off to start writing up everything in the shrine that needed work, and Tomoe returned.

~oOo~

Kagome had moved out of her childhood home, the Higurashi Shrine, shortly after she'd graduated from Tokyo-U. Souta was going to inherit the shrine, and besides, there were too many memories there. Memories that no one else had, because 'everything as it should be' did not include visits from InuYasha into the present day. As far as the rest of the world knew, Kagome had just been really sick those two years she'd been running around the Sengoku.

Only Kagome remembered otherwise. At least, she assumed so. She couldn't really find any of the demons she had once known and ask them if they still remembered. It would be damn hard to find them if they still lived, and really, _really_ awkward for her if they didn't remember.

Besides, the apartment she rented was near several schools – and she worked at all of them part-time, teaching business classes mostly, but occasionally she filled in for other teachers if one of them called in sick or something.

It made tax season a pain it the butt, but she managed, and she had saved up a bit of a nest-egg as well. A nest-egg which would soon be going towards materials to restore the Mikage Shrine.

"You've got a nice place here, Higurashi-san," Nanami complimented as she followed the older woman into the apartment.

"Thank you," Kagome answered. "You can sleep through this way," she offered, and opened the door to the room that was the guest room that she kept for when Eri or Yuka (or both of them) showed up after a night on the town. As they got older, they were slowly becoming more responsible, but they were still very adamant that they were young enough to enjoy a good time still, so they showed up at Kagome's apartment once or twice a month.

Ayame was almost always the one to collect them in the mornings and take them away to sober them up, though Hojo had come for Yuka a few times as well, as he was her boyfriend now (and Kagome thanked the kami that he'd given up on _her_ ).

Kagome saw Nanami settled, then turned to the white fox that was standing in her apartment.

"If you can bear the thought of sleep?" she started, drawing his attention from a wall-hanging (a simple ink painting she had done herself of a two-tailed Nekomata and a kitsune playing among curls of fire).

Tomoe turned to her, and she gestured for him to follow behind her.

She opened the door to her home office. "You may sleep in my room with me, or here. If you don't want to sleep, then I ask you spend the night reading. It might happen that you need to follow Momozono-chan or myself out in the human world, and should that happen, you will need to be knowledgeable of the human world."

Tomoe bowed his head, and settled into Kagome's office chair cautiously.

~oOo~

Kagome liked to sleep in. She really, really did. Unfortunately, after a couple of years of getting up at the literal crack of dawn – and sometimes even in the grey time before true dawn – sleeping in was a habit she just couldn't get into. With that being followed up by classes at eight in the morning most days... waking up early was a habit she'd never gotten out of. She could nap during the day, no problem, but in the mornings? No.

Besides, getting up early afforded her more time to do things. Things like clean her apartment, cook breakfast and her boxed lunch, and get in a little meditation before she took a shower and actually got ready to go out into the world and start the day.

"Momozono-chan, time to get up," she called into the guest room as she knocked on the door. "You have school today, and I've made your breakfast and packed your lunch."

There was a sound of flung back bedding and scrambling limbs before the door was flung open.

"Really?" Nanami asked, shocked. "Last night wasn't a dream? And... you made me a bento?"

Kagome smiled. "Really," she confirmed. "Now get a move on. Oh!" she stopped herself and pulled a set of beads – oh, so familiar, but no, these were different beads, with a different purpose – out of her apron pocket. "This is for you to wear too," she said, as she presented the beads to the girl.

"Wow, they're so pretty," Nanami said as she slipped them over her head. "Thank you, but why?"

"Because you're a kami now," Kagome stated simply, "but you're still a fragile little ningen, and the combination of the two is an invitation to yokai to eat you. The beads carry a protection spell. It won't stop them from recognising you as a kami, you'd need to actually cover your brow for that, but you'll be safe enough from them despite that."

"Really?" Nanami repeated, surprised.

"Yes," Kagome confirmed. "Any yokai that touches you while you wear these beads will be burned."

" _Any_ demon?" Tomoe asked, his voice purring with disbelieving curiosity.

Kagome smirked. " _Any_ demon," she promised him. "Even you, Tomoe, cannot touch Momozono-chan and escape without getting a nasty shock."

"Interesting," Tomoe decided thoughtfully.

"But you're Higurashi-san's familiar, not mine, so that shouldn't be a problem, right?" Nanami pointed out.

Tomoe shrugged. "Maybe," he consented.

Nanami decided she'd had enough of the conversation and moved out to find the breakfast that Kagome had mentioned.

"Maybe you aren't as useless and pathetic as I thought you would be," Tomoe allowed grudgingly, a thoughtful look in his violet eyes. "I'm not convinced about the other one though."

"You say such sweet things," Kagome quipped with an amused little twist to her lips. "And you don't have to answer to Momozono-chan, so don't worry about her capability to fill her new role just yet. There's fried inari among the breakfast foods, if you want some, Tomoe."

The fox's ears perked forward at the suggestion, and he lifted his nose slightly so that it could guide him to the kitchenette.

"So, did you sleep at all last night?" Kagome asked Tomoe as he sat down at her table.

"No," Tomoe admitted freely. "The wretchedness of being bound to a _human female_..." he growled, a scowl on his face. "The humiliation!"

Kagome smiled and reached out to stroke his ears. "I promise I won't embarrass you," she said gently as she enjoyed the way he went rigid, and then suddenly boneless at the way she stroked his ears just the right way. "You spent the night reading my books then?"

"Yes," Tomoe admitted. "They were..."

"Yeah," Kagome said with a slight chuckle when he couldn't find the words to describe some of her books. "They are that."

Nanami finished her breakfast quickly, then hurried off to bush her teeth and dress for school.

Kagome blinked when the girl returned. "Momozono-chan, you go to Ujigami?" she asked, surprised.

Nanami blinked at the question. "Yes," she confirmed. "Why?"

"I teach there today," Kagome said. "The business class. You're... not one of my students," she said, mentally going through her rolls for that school.

"No," Nanami confirmed. "I am taking extra math courses though," she added with a self-depreciating smile. "I want to study accounting at university. After living with my dad's debts..."

"Ah," Kagome registered. "I suppose that makes sense. Well, we should both get there early today. Since your father ran off and you're now living with me, that's something that the school will need to know about."

"And what am I to do today?" Tomoe asked, just a hint of bitterness in his tone – but only a little bit, as Kagome was still rubbing his ears just right.

"Prepare the shrine for renovations. Remove any rotting wood, set aside tiles that have fallen out of their places or broken, sand the torii gate to ready it for a new coat of paint... and bring me that list I asked for last night, so that I can see to ordering the supplies we'll need during my lunch break," Kagome instructed.

"Yes Mistress," Tomoe answered dutifully.

"And when you come to the school to deliver that list, you need to address me as Higurashi-san. I would like as few inane questions from my co-workers as possible. If you call me 'mistress' where they can here, then I'll be getting an earful as soon as you're out of sight."

"As you wish."


	2. Chapter 2

Kagome could feel Nanami's distress clear across the school. Being attuned to the supernatural and having been granted divinity by the same kami apparently did that to a person. Since she had only been grading papers in the staff room, rather than being in the middle of a class, Kagome didn't feel any guilt about packing up her task and going in search of the girl who was kind of her ward now.

She found the girl crying in the bathroom, and lightly touching the edges of the skin-toned bandage that she'd decided to wear over the kami-mark on her forehead. Tomoe had suggested a hood with ears or a hitae-ate, but Kagome had countered with medical sticking-plaster, if Nanami really wanted to cover it – just in case and in addition to the beads.

"What happened?" she asked the girl gently.

"Apparently Kurama's joined my class, and I was sitting at my desk, and then he just came right up to me and said I was sitting in _his_ seat..." Nanami explained, tears in her eyes. "It wasn't what he said so much as the way he said it, like I wasn't worth the dirt on the bottom of his shoes."

Kagome placed a gentle hand on the girl's shoulder. "Well, we both know it's the other way around, don't we?" she pointed out. "After all, Kurama's just a pretty-boy with a great agent. You're a kami."

Nanami managed a wet giggle at that. "I can't exactly tell him that," she countered, but she was smiling again. "Thanks, Higurashi-sensei. I feel much better now."

Kagome nodded, satisfied. "Just remember this about boys," she instructed. "Most of the things they say are said specifically to make us react. You need to shut them down, rather than rising to the bait. Trust me, I've been there."

With InuYasha, and Koga, and Naraku, and Miroku, and even Sesshoumaru had said a few things specifically to annoy. And of course that was just the ones that were _regular_ and _recurring_ annoyances.

"So, ready to face the jerk?" Kagome asked.

Nanami smiled and wiped away her tears. "Yeah. I am."

~oOo~

Nanami exited the bathroom first, to find the pop-star jerk leaning against the wall, apparently waiting for Nanami.

"Did you go to the bathroom and have a good cry?" Kurama asked mockingly. "How adorable!"

Kagome stepped out of the bathroom then.

"Kurama-san," she said, and in the past, InuYasha had recognised that tone as the over-sweet, very dangerous tone that came right before a very harsh 'osuwari'. "This is, I believe, your first day attending Ujigami High School. Momozono-san has been attending here for some time. As such, you had no right or reason to claim she was in _your_ seat, and I believe you owe her an apology."

"I know," Kurama said. "That's why I came here."

Student and teacher both raised an eyebrow at that. The former in scepticism, the latter in surprise.

"Nanami, I'm sorry," Kurama said, and it certainly sounded sincere. "I was just angry. Any school I go to, every day, people stare at me, watching me non-stop, and I ended up taking my frustrations out on you. I was wrong," he apologised. "So relax," he added, that cocksure tone re-entering his voice. "The last thing you have to worry about is whether or not I hate you or anything."

"Well, in that case, I guess I can't blame you for taking things out on me, because I was one of the people who was staring at you," Nanami allowed. "Sorry. But don't worry, I won't ever look at you again," she declared firmly. Then she turned and started to march back off to class.

"Hey!" Kurama called after her.

"Leave it," Kagome advised.

Kurama blinked, surprised at the cut off.

But Kagome just smiled and turned her back. Like Nanami, she'd covered her mark with a plaster, but she had enough hair over her forehead to hide the bandage as well, so he didn't know she was more than she appeared to be. On the other hand, Kagome's ability to sense youki wasn't in any way dimmed – and she could sense him.

~oOo~

"Excuse me," a voice called from the door of the staff room. "I'm looking for Higurashi-san. Is she here?"

"Ah, Tomoe-san, here I am," Kagome answered, and rose from the chair she'd been sitting on to greet him properly. "How is everything going?" she enquired.

"The list you asked for," Tomoe presented, and held out a scroll, not a little sheepishly. "I'm afraid I have been poor with the upkeep."

"Hardly your fault that the shrine hasn't had much income," she countered with an easy shrug as she unrolled a little bit of the scroll.

"Higurashi-san?" one of her co-workers enquired curiously.

"Ara, I met the previous owner of the Mikage Shrine last night, and he requested that I take over it's care since he is so rarely about," Kagome explained. "Tomoe-san is going to help me restore the shrine to its former glory."

"Such an attractive helper," purred another co-worker.

"Keep your hands to yourself, and your eyes too, if you don't want to become a blind music teacher with no fingers," Kagome advised the woman absently but firmly, not even looking up from the list she was reading.

"So mean," the woman pouted, but turned away all the same. "It's not like _you're_ dating him, is it? You don't date."

"No, you're right. I'm not dating Tomoe-san. I'm living with him," Kagome corrected in a sort of passive-aggressive way, but entirely polite. "This is going to take a while," she informed Tomoe with a sigh as she rolled up the scroll again. "But I'll call to get lumber delivered, as well as paint for the torii gate, and you can get started with that. If you could bring me one of the whole tiles that came loose, then I'll stop by a tile shop on the way to the shrine to get an order to match."

Tomoe bowed his head. "Of course, Higurashi-san," he agreed softly. "Will there be anything else?"

Kagome hummed softly in thought. "I think... I think I'm going to swing by my old home, the Higurashi-shrine. I left a lot of things there when I moved out because the apartment I was moving into was so small. Things that will be useful to have around the Mikage Shrine. Would you be so kind as to escort Momozono-chan to the shrine after school lets out? Just this once, so that she knows the way for sure," she requested.

Tomoe scowled, clearly displeased with the request.

Kagome smiled. "I'll be sure to get something just for you on my way home as an extra thank-you for doing this for me," she offered.

Tomoe looked away. "Very well," he acquiesced. He knew full well that she could order him to do so if she wished, and there was a certain power in her requests that saw a tingle running down his spine, an urge to obey – but she was asking, instead of ordering. The consideration was very much appreciated.

~oOo~

The problem with shrines, Kagome knew, was all the stairs made packing stuff to move a real hassle. Getting stuff together, then down to the car, then back up the shrine steps to get another load – because there was no way everything she needed was going to be transported in one go, or she could have taken the bus with it instead.

She'd explained the situation – glossing over various, supernatural details – to her family, and they'd been very helpful. So, now she was on her way back to the Mikage Shrine, her car loaded up with various bits and pieces to help make the shrine something beautiful (and popular and profitable) again. She'd already been to the tile place, and her order was going to be delivered, so that was one less thing she had to try to fit in her car.

The last things she collected from her old home were weapons. Her bow (she'd joined the archery club in high school after her adventures were over), a pile of arrows and a quiver... and a sword. The sword was for Tomoe – that extra thank-you she'd promised him.

She hoped he liked it.

"Welcome back Lady Kagome!" Onikiri and Kotetsu cheered as she crossed under the torii gate with her first arm-load of things.

She smiled at the two wisps. "Hello you two," she answered. "I see you've been hard at work, or is most of what I see done by Tomoe-san?"

"We painted the torii gate!" Onikiri declared happily.

"But it was Master Tomoe who did everything else," Kotetsu admitted.

"And where is Tomoe-san now?" she enquired.

"Master Tomoe is instructing Lady Nanami in the nature and duties of a Land God," they chorused.

At that moment, there was a frustrated yell and the fox in question barged out of the shrine.

Kagome rolled her eyes. "Tomoe, take a deep breath and calm down!" she called over to him.

She saw him halt mid-march, pull a deep breath into his lungs, and breathe it out again slowly.

"I asked you to escort her back here, I didn't say anything about instructing her, much as she needs it," she reminded him more gently as she walked up to him. "Now, tell me what exactly has you so frustrated."

"She cannot turn water into sake even with a white talisman to aid her," he grumbled. "It remains water, completely unchanged."

"Water was never meant to _be_ turned into sake," Kagome pointed out with a smile. "I'll oversee her training until she finds a familiar for herself though, so don't you worry about it," she recommended gently. "You've done wonders with the shrine already," she praised, effectively changing the topic.

"Thank you," Tomoe muttered. "It's the duties of a familiar to see to the upkeep of the shrine..."

"That may be so," Kagome allowed, "but you've done more in one day than I quite anticipated. Then again, I was always better at gardening than housework, apart from cooking, and even that took a lot of practice."

Tomoe said nothing.

Kagome shook her head at him, and set down her load of things on the porch. Her hands free, she reached into her pocket and pulled out her car key.

"Momozono-chan!" she called out. "Come help me get things out of the car!"

"Coming!" Nanami called back, and was out of the shrine quickly.

"Mistress?" Tomoe queried, clearly expecting that he too would aid in fetching things from her car.

"It would be a shame if it rained on the new wood," Kagome said. "The delivery of roof tiles has come?"

"Shortly before you returned Lady Kagome," Onikiri confirmed happily.

Kagome nodded in gratitude to the wisp. "Please fix the roof, Tomoe-san," she requested politely. "Onikiri and Kotetsu can help Momozono-chan and me fetch from the car."

He bowed and moved off to do as instructed.

"Why isn't he helping us get things from the car?" Nanami queried curiously. "Not that I mind, the jerk."

Kagome bit back a giggle. "Because I have a present for him in the car," she explained to the teenager. "And I don't want him to see it before I give it to him."

~oOo~

"The roof is fixed," Tomoe said when they stepped through the torii gate once more, arms laden down with things from Kagome's car.

"That was fast," Nanami murmured, eyes wide and stunned.

Kagome chuckled lowly. "We took a bit longer at my car than I think you realised," she quipped to the girl. "Well done Tomoe-san. I am very pleased. Do you have lacquer or varnish for the wood? Or should I fetch some from the hardware store? I just realised that I only ordered paint for the torii gate, and nothing for the shrine itself."

"We do not," Tomoe admitted.

"Then you can come with me, and we'll do some shopping. Momozono-chan can do her homework, and Onikiri and Kotetsu can see that everything is clean, ready for the lacquer and varnish," Kagome decided. "I called a plumber and an electrician while I was at my family's shrine, and have arranged for them to come on Sunday, which I have off from work. Then, I believe that just about everything will be in order for Momozono-chan and me to move into the shrine, and we'll be able to work out anything else as we go along."

"As you wish, Mistress," Tomoe deferred.

"Mm," Kagome hummed. "You're going to need to look human outside the shrine, Tomoe-san."

His ears and tail promptly vanished.

Kagome smiled. "Before that though, I promised you a present," she reminded Tomoe.

The ears and tail returned, and the ears perked forward in curiosity.

Kagome withdrew the sword she had taken from the Higurashi Shrine and presented it to her familiar.

"I peg you as at least two hundred years old, based on what I know of yokai ageing, and probably closer to five or six. So I suspect you know how to use this, hm?" she said as she offered the weapon to him.

Tomoe reached tentatively for the handle, and his fingers hesitated a mere breath away from it.

"It will be nice to have a training companion again," Kagome said, assuring him that, yes, it was alright for him to have the sword, as well as why she had chosen this as her gift for him.

Tomoe closed his fingers around the grip and withdrew the blade from the sheath. With a warm hiss, the gleaming steel slid free.

~oOo~ 

Due to the smell of the lacquer and the varnish, Tomoe was forced to sit out that particular chore – Kagome sent him to weed the garden instead. Finally, the sun was beginning to go down, and there was truly little else that could be done about the shrine. Except watch the varnish dry.

Kagome drove Nanami and Tomoe back to her apartment, made a quick dinner of grilled fish and stir-fried vegetables, and then Kagome made sure that the teenager was in bed before she set about making tea for herself and Tomoe.

"Mistress..." Tomoe started.

Kagome looked up from her teacup.

"Thank you. For what you are doing for the shrine," he said softly. "It... it feels good, to have my home restored properly like this."

"And to not have to constantly expend your youki," Kagome suggested, and nodded. "You're a strong demon, Tomoe-san, but that doesn't mean that the constant drain hasn't been tiring for you."

Tomoe grimaced and said nothing, which Kagome knew from experience with _other_ demons was practically an admission that she'd hit the nail right on the head.

"Still, the constant expenditure of youki over a prolonged period of time will have made you even stronger than you were, especially now that you don't have to spend that youki," Kagome commented, and gave her familiar a smile. "I look forward to my days with you, Tomoe-san."

" _Why_?!" the fox demanded harshly, his violet eyes wide and incredulous in his face – and judging by what Kagome could see there, this was something that had been bugging him since almost the moment they met.

Kagome sighed. "How old are you Tomoe?" she asked. "Your body is mature, so you must be at least two hundred years old. You have only one tail, so you can't be a thousand yet. But the level of youki you have, your manners and the way you dress, even if they are still the standard robes of shrine-keepers... I'd guess you're somewhere about five or six hundred years old?"

"I am coming out of the second decade of my sixth century," Tomoe confirmed neutrally. "But what does that have to do with anything?"

"Did you ever hear tales of the Shikon no Tama?" Kagome questioned, apparently ignoring his.

Tomoe frowned. "I heard that it was broken, shattered and its shards spread across all of Nippon during the latter part of my first century of life, and the early years of my second. Its pieces were sought by many demons for the power they could grant. The jewel was most actively sought by two hanyou though. Enemies. A spider and a dog, each with their own sets of allies."

"Naraku didn't have allies," Kagome scoffed softly. "He had incarnations that were subject to his will. InuYasha had allies, or I did, and he was among them, so my allies became his as well."

Tomoe blinked, convinced that he hadn't heard that right.

"When I was sixteen, on my birthday in fact, I fell down the Bone Eater's Well, which was located on my family's shrine. Well, I say 'fell'," Kagome said with a wry curl to her lips. "Actually, I was dragged down by a centipede demon. I tapped into my raw spiritual powers, never before used, and got away from her. But when I pulled myself out of the well again, I was in the Sengoku. It's been ten years since the well last took me back to that era. Back to the friends I made there, human and demon alike, and I have missed the tingle of youki as it brushes up against my own miko powers."

"You are the Shikon Miko," Tomoe breathed.

Kagome nodded silently.

Tomoe scrambled out of his chair to kneel on the floor and prostrate himself before her.

"Get up, Tomoe-san," Kagome ordered lightly. "I didn't tell you this so that you would fear me."

Tomoe rose, but he would not look Kagome in the eyes.

Kagome sighed and reached out to catch his chin with her finger. "One of the demons I travelled with was a young fox kit. His name was Shippo, and he was like a son to me, even though I was just a teenager. I missed his aura more than anyone else's when I realised I couldn't go back. That particular aura that I learned all foxes have about them. Though, of course, with varying degrees of certain aspects. Shippo was very playful. Another youko we met was very wise."

"And what does my aura say about me?" Tomoe asked cautiously.

"You are dangerous," Kagome answered with a content little smile, her eyes a little hazy as she studied his aura more closely. The smile faded into a frown. "And cursed. Well, that's no good. Come and sit before me Tomoe-san, breaking curses isn't easy at the best of times, and this is not the best of times, for these are spells placed by kamis. Fortunately for you, I've had a _lot_ of practice with curses, and right now, I'm a kami as well."

It was a good thing, as far as Kagome was concerned, that she only had one class to teach the next day – and in the afternoon at that. It had taken her until the time when the sky was lightened to grey, just before dawn, to lift the curses from Tomoe (yeah, more than one), and then another hour had passed with her comforting him over the memories that had returned to him as part of the curses all being lifted. At last, she collapsed into exhausted sleep with the instruction to wake her in time for the class she had to teach.

There was a curse that would slowly kill Tomoe whenever he felt love for another, and then the not-quite-so-curse-like curse of just about all of his memories from the time before becoming Mikage's familiar being erased. They took her combined powers as a miko and now also as a divinity to remove.

Considering that the sealed-away memories had included heartbreak, well, that was why the second one wasn't entirely curse-like. Still, there had been a lot of comforting needed as Tomoe sobbed out the long-forgotten pain that suddenly struck him again like a sledge-hammer.

And Mikage was big on match-making, so that particular bit of magic – performed on Tomoe _by_ said kami – was probably meant to be given as a mercy, a kindness, rather than as a curse.


	3. Chapter 3

Nanami just about threw herself at Kagome when she and Tomoe arrived at Ujigami to collect her after her classes were done for the day. The girl was shaking.

"Momozono-chan, what happened?" Kagome asked, concerned, as she wrapped her arms around the girl's shoulders.

"Kurama..." Nanami gasped.

"I thought we agreed he was a jerk not worth the dirt on the bottom of your shoes," Kagome teased the girl gently.

"He put his hand on my shoulder today, but he pulled away quick, and... and his hand was burned!" Nanami explained as she stepped back. "You said that, as long as I wore these beads -" she tugged at the beads Kagome had given her, and that she wore around her neck still, "- any yokai would be burned if it touched me. Does... does that mean that Kurama is a yokai?"

"Judging by the wings he's so famous for, and the name he chose for himself, I'd guess he's one of the karasu tengu from the Mt Kurama clan," Kagome agreed with a nod and a shrug – she had felt his youki before, so this was no surprise to her. Then she got a sly smirk on her face. "Grab any feathers he sheds if you can, they've got special properties. Otherwise... Want to have a pop-star tengu for your familiar?" she suggested naughtily. "He'd have to obey your every order."

Nanami flinched at the tone. "Uh... really? But..." she hesitated, looking over at Tomoe.

"Lady Kagome is very generous in that she generally asks me to do things, rather than handing out orders, but yes. Any yokai, shikigami, or spirit bound by the familiar contract _must_ obey the kami that they are so bound to," Tomoe explained unhappily.

Nanami blinked. "Surprised you weren't madder about Higurashi-sensei binding you then," she said softly. Then she blinked again. "Hey wait. _When_ did she bind you? How?"

"When we kissed," Kagome and Tomoe said at the same time.

"Just like Mikage passed on his divine status and powers when he kissed us here," Kagome said, and lay a finger over the mark that was only visible to those with spiritual powers (or youki, as the case may be) on her own forehead. "Many divine contracts, like the familiar contract, are sealed with kisses in some way."

"Like hell I'm kissing that jerk," Nanami declared firmly. "Even if it _did_ mean I could boss him around. He's not worth a first kiss! Not by a long shot!"

"Good," Tomoe said firmly. "I dislike karasu tengu."

"Oh, and uh, Tomoe? A bunch of the girls in my class saw you pick me up yesterday. They, uh..." Nanami hesitated.

"They went ga-ga?" Kagome suggested with a knowing smirk.

Nanami nodded sheepishly.

Tomoe blinked, confused. "What does 'ga-ga' mean?" he asked.

"It means, my dear, darling Tomoe-kun," Kagome purred as she ran skilled fingers through his silver hair. "That they all want you to romance them. To kiss them. To _rut_ them," she hissed softly in his ear. "Though of course, most of them would hold out on that last one until they thought you _loved_ them. Teenage girls are rather like that."

Tomoe blinked and looked out over the school yard, his violet eyes surveying each and every girl that was covertly watching them with their hearts in their eyes.

"Not interested," he declared, and turned up his nose at them all.

An action which, considering the way his knees had buckled a little when Kagome started running her fingers through his hair, set his face against Kagome's throat.

She smiled, patted his head once more, and then urged him and Nanami over to her car. They were going to help her collect her things out of her apartment, and move them to the shrine. It was fit to be moved into a lot sooner than she had originally anticipated after all. Especially considering its previous, dilapidated state.

They could live without plumbing or electricity for a few days. Goodness knows she'd lived with far less any time she went to the Sengoku back when she was in high school.

~oOo~ 

"Alright, that's everything," Kagome said happily as she surveyed the freshly-furnished shrine. The furniture was hers, so some of it was second-hand and some of it was battered and a bit more lived-in, but she liked her furniture.

"Whew," Nanami sighed gratefully, glad that the task of shifting everything from keepsakes, wall-hangings, and pots and pans through to futons, folding screens and other furniture, was finally over.

"Now..." Kagome said, a steely, determined look in her eyes. "Tomoe-san, could you please take Onikiri and Kotetsu to wait just out passed the torii gate? I'm going to cleanse and purify this shrine. It may be a bit uncomfortable for you."

"Of course, Mistress," Tomoe agreed quickly, and grabbed up the two wisps that were attached to the shrine and dragged them out.

"Momozono-chan, you're going to help me," Kagome said firmly.

"Me? But... but I'm just a normal human girl," she objected, sweating suddenly under the pressure of Kagome's commanding aura. "I don't have any special powers -!"

"Ah, but you do," Kagome corrected. "You just don't know how to use them yet. Let's start with the talismans that Tomoe-san wanted you to use to turn water into sake, hmm? You will write such things as 'clean', 'pure', and 'holy' on the talismans, and place one of each of these at all of the corners of the shrine. Anything else you think of, add as well. 'Strong' and 'safe' would be good talismans to lay by the foundations," she recommended.

Nanami gulped nervously. "And, uh, what are you going to do?" she asked tentatively.

Kagome pulled her quiver of arrows over her shoulder, and withdrew one to hold up between them. Just as she had once done so very, very often, Kagome flared her power at the arrowhead.

"I will be using a bit more force," she answered. "Your talismans will be preserving in nature, keeping things as I will make them."

Nanami nodded in acceptance, her honey-brown eyes fixed on the pink-glowing arrow.

When it was done, and safe for those who weren't human to set foot on the shrine grounds once more, Kagome called Tomoe and the wisps back.

"Such a powerful lady goddess of the land," the wisps cheered, awed, as they floated around Kagome.

"Hey, I helped too you know!" Nanami objected.

Kagome giggled. "Don't take it so hard," she comforted. "I've had a lot longer to get the hang of this sort of thing. It will come, and you will improve, I promise."

"She certainly can't get worse," Tomoe agreed.

"Hey!" Nanami yelled.

"Hush, Tomoe," Kagome instructed. "There is no need to be brutal and unkind in your comments."

"Yes, Mistress," Tomoe said, and bowed his head to Kagome. He turned to Nanami then and looked her in the eye. "I apologise for my unkind words, Lady Nanami," he said, words soft, and bowed slightly to her.

Nanami nodded. "That's okay," she forgave.

~oOo~

If there was one thing Kagome knew, it was that balancing a 'normal' life with a life that was involved in the strange and supernatural was _hard_. She was determined to keep up her work though, at least until the end of the school year. Her contract with the various schools she taught at would then be up for either renewal or termination – and far more politely and on better terms than if she just quit part-way through the year.

Working also meant that she had an income to support herself and Nanami until the shrine was bringing in money again. She was determined that it would. Kagome took to marking papers during her lunch break and in classes while she had her students reading, so that she would have more time at the shrine to make talismans, charms, and other such things that could be sold to worshippers.

Also, so that she could tutor Nanami. The teenager needed to improve her grades as well as work on her kami-gifts, so Kagome tutored her in both. Tomoe didn't exactly have the knowledge for the former, nor much patience with her over either. But that was fine.

Teaching a teenager how to be a kami wasn't really something that generally fell within the purview of a familiar, after all.

Kagome was coaching Nanami in making the sakura on the shrine grounds bloom – with minimal success – when a java sparrow wearing a ceremonial hat swooped down.

"Excuse me goddess...es?" the little sparrow asked before it landed on the mat between Kagome and Nanami.

"Greetings, Sparrow," Kagome answered it politely. "Yes, we are both marked as the kami of this shrine. It's a little confusing, I know. May I ask what brings you to Mikage Shrine on this fine day?"

"I come bearing a message, one very dear to the heart of Princess Himemiko," the sparrow answered, and hopped a little more towards Kagome. "Later this evening, Princess Himemiko of the swamp will visit Mikage Shrine, to pay her respects to you, the knew Lady Goddesses of the Land."

Kagome nodded. "Thank you," she said. "We shall eagerly anticipate receiving her."

The java sparrow bobbed its tiny head, and took off once more.

"Higurashi-sensei?" Nanami queried nervously. "The sparrow just talked!"

Kagome nodded absently and moved to stand. She had seen stranger in her time (her time being the Sengoku). Much stranger. "You keep practising. You've got buds on the trees where there were none before, that's good, but they're not blossoms yet. I will go and speak with Tomoe-san about readying the shrine for our visitor."

~oOo~

"Numano Himemiko is a catfish spirit," Tomoe enlightened. "She is the princess of Tatara Swamp, a protectorate of the Mikage Shrine. It is natural she should come and pay her respects."

"Catfish, huh? Good to know, and to be on their good side," Kagome remarked thoughtfully. "We will need a formal kimono for both myself and Momozono-chan to receive Himemiko-sama in. I have one, but I'm pretty sure Momozono-chan is lacking such."

"You can't possibly mean for _her_ to receive such an important visitor?" Tomoe exclaimed. "She is incompetent! You have at least some grasp of things, but it is going to be a tenuous enough meeting with you there!"

Kagome lifted an eyebrow at the fox. "Sit," she ordered him, much as she had once ordered InuYasha.

Obediently, the fox's bum thudded to the floor. It wasn't the dramatic face-plant of subjugation beads, but it worked.

"To _not_ receive the princess personally would be a greater slight than to receive her and bumble about the meeting. She knows that we are new to being the kamis of this shrine. She will not expect perfection from us. It is important to show her proper respect though, and we will do that by welcoming her visit _personally_ ," Kagome explained. "She's coming to visit _us_ , not you, Tomoe-san."

Tomoe winced.

Kagome sighed. "I will instruct Momozono-chan to be silent unless a question is directed specifically to her, and to follow my lead. She knows that she is ignorant, and that is the best place for her to be right now," she said. "Willing to learn, and aware that she has much learning to do."

~oOo~

"So good of you to visit, Himemiko of the Swamp," Tomoe greeted the catfish princess and her entourage. "I am Tomoe, familiar to my lady and mistress, Higurashi Kagome who is now one of the kami of this shrine. Please, she is eager to greet you," he invited, and gestured for her to follow him further into the shrine.

He led the yokai princess to one of the rooms that Kagome had prepared shortly after informing him of Himemiko's impending visit, and with confidence he did not feel, he slid the shoji open.

"Greetings, Princess Himemiko," Kagome welcomed with a smile.

Beside her, Nanami bowed the exact depth that Kagome had instructed her upon that afternoon, and echoed the older woman's greeting. Neither one had a bandage over their divine mark now, so the golden glow upon their brows was perfectly clear to the visiting princess.

Himemiko stepped into the room, but when her bodyguard attempted to follow her, a barrier made itself known.

"What is this?!" demanded the bodyguard angrily.

Kagome's answering smile was serene. "The messenger that Princess Himemiko sent stated that she wished to discuss a matter dear to her heart, as well as pay her respects. We're just going to have some girl-talk. I assure you, your lady is quite safe. Tomoe-san, please show our other guests to the other room that I prepared. No male of any sort may enter this chamber until Momozono-chan and I lower the barrier."

"Yes, Mistress," Tomoe answered, bowed low to her and a hand over his heart.

"Oh, and Tomoe-san?" Kagome called quickly just as he began to turn.

"Yes, Mistress?" he queried.

"I know your temper. No killing or irreparable maiming, and you are to refrain from so much as terrorising without provocation," Kagome instructed firmly.

Tomoe's eyes went wide with innocence.

Kagome rolled her eyes. "Go," she said, waving him off.

Tomoe bowed again, and turned to lead the rest of the catfish retinue to the second room that Kagome had prepared. A room that had talismans for 'comfort' and 'ease' subtly placed in the corners, and being really quite effective. Which, to Tomoe's mind, meant that Nanami had not been the one to make them.

In the room left behind, tea was served, and girl-talk ensued.

~oOo~

"I came with the hope of asking the kami's assistance in making a match," Himemiko admitted softly.

"I'm going to guess you're not talking about setting you up with one of your own subjects," Kagome countered. "Or you wouldn't need our help with this."

"No," Himemiko agreed. "My love is a human boy, Urashima Koutaro. I encountered him ten years ago. He was eight years old, and he looked so adorable as he cried by the swamp."

"Not really much to base a romance on," Kagome pointed out, "and then there's the difficulties of matching a being who is not human with one who is."

"Um, like what?" Nanami asked curiously.

Kagome shrugged. "Humans age faster than yokai and shikigami. _Much_ faster," she explained. "It meant nothing to Himemiko-sama to wait ten years for the child to grow to adulthood. This Urashima boy will grow old before your eyes," Kagome cautioned the catfish princess. "He will age, and fade, and you will remain as you are. That is, if he accepts your affections. He might already be in a relationship with another. Humans of that age often are."

Himemiko bowed her head sadly.

"There is also the concern of progeny," Kagome continued. "Hanyou were barely tolerated at the best of times five hundred years ago. I doubt they'd have an easier time of it now, since it is so unpredictable as to which aspects of their parents the child will inherit. There is a reason that such pairings are considered taboo."

"So it is impossible," Himemiko wept softly.

"No," Kagome corrected. "Just extremely difficult, with a high failure-rating, and generally inadvisable. What can be done is we will find your Urashima Koutaro, and arrange a meeting with you. There, you may express your wishes, and he shall be able to answer you. You must accept whatever he says on the matter, and I also advise you be honest with him about your true nature. No relationship built on lies will do well."

Himemiko looked up, and her large black eyes were still shining with tears, but there was a faint smile on her face, and hope shone out from behind the tears.

"Thank you," she breathed. "That is more than I could have hoped for."

"You're quite welcome," Kagome answered her easily. "But, for finding your boy, we're going to need more details than just his name."

Himemiko nodded, and then they really got into the girl-talk.

"So, we're going to look for Koutaro tomorrow?" Nanami asked eagerly once Himemiko had left.

"No," Kagome corrected shortly. "You have school to attend tomorrow."  
"But..."

"I will conduct an internet search for him in my lunch break, based on what Himemiko-sama has told us. Hopefully, I can find him that way, and then we'll be able to go and fetch him together if you really want, but _after_ you get out of school for the day," Kagome explained more gently.

"Oh." 

~oOo~

" _What did you say_?!" Tomoe yelled, clearly very unhappy with what he'd just heard.

Nanami had been happily telling Onikiri and Kotetsu about how Himemiko was in love with a human boy, and that they were going to help set them up.

"Deep breath, Tomoe-san," Kagome scolded gently. "She's being a teenage girl with hearts in her eyes. We're going to find the boy, and if he's open to the idea then I'll invite him and Himemiko-hime here to talk, and I'll walk them through all the problems they'll have to face if they want to go through with it. And that's a big 'if'. She likes him because he cried cutely at eight. She knows nothing else about the kid."

"Aw, Higurashi-sensei, don't be so negative!" Nanami begged.

Kagome rolled her eyes. "Yes, well, I've met others who founded their relationships on similarly flimsy pretexts," she grumbled. "It never worked out that I saw. So relax, Tomoe-san. I've got the situation under control. Even if it is a time-bomb."

"Such relationships are forbidden!" Tomoe growled. He had first hand experience of why, too.

Kagome forced back a giggle. "Tomoe-san, in the morning, remind me to find you a text on foxwives," she requested teasingly, a delighted, mischievous smile dancing about her lips.


	4. Chapter 4

Kagome smiled at the furious visage of her ward as Nanami marched out of the school towards her, arms akimbo and steam near coming out of her ears.

"Kurama still a jerk?" she asked.

"No," Nanami answered. "Isobe. The eternal jerk who just _lives_ to make other people miserable. Me especially. Ugh, why am I surrounded by jerks!?" she wailed.

Kagome smiled. "Been there," she agreed sympathetically as she guided the teen to her car. "The good ones grow out of it, but for those that don't, you've got to know how to handle them. Now, forget about your herd of jerks, we've got a boy to educate on the existence of yokai, and a doomed relationship to give light and hope to."

"Doomed?" Nanami repeated as she settled in and did up her seatbelt. "Why do you say things like that?"

Kagome sighed, then reached for her own seatbelt. "Because no relationship between a human and a non-human has _ever_ ended in anything but tragedy and heartbreak," she answered sadly. Not even the island that had been inhabited almost exclusively by such unions had gotten a truly happy ending. Not really.

Kagome thought of all the hanyou she knew. Well, the ones that had been born, rather than made by human greed anyway. InuYasha; his father dead saving his mother Izayoi, and Izayoi herself dead not long after. Jinenji; no father anywhere, though he'd left a good plot of land. His mother had loved him, but the villagers had scarred him terribly. Shiori; father killed by her grandfather, and her mother (however reluctant) had agreed to surrender her to that same bat demon in order to protect the village.

And then there were her own past relationships with various demons. InuYasha: bust. Koga: don't even go there. Shippo: surrogate mother, rather than romance, but even that hadn't been able to last.

After leaving Nanami's school behind, it was a long five hours. They found the boy, learned he was single, convinced him to come to the shrine and meet Himemiko, then Kagome sat them down together and gave them a firm talking-to about the challenges they could potentially face if they agreed to try.

Which they did, with Koutaro still unable to quite tear his eyes away from Himemiko's fins or large black fish-eyes.

Oh yeah, that was going to work out just _great_.

Nanami wrote a talisman that said 'human' and offered it to Himemiko, to see if it would make a difference. They could hardly date if she couldn't go out in public, and she really couldn't do that if she looked the part of a catfish princess. Fortunately for Nanami, Himemiko gladly accepted rather than taking offence, and even more fortunate for the teenaged girl, the talisman worked wonderfully.

And it could be removed and reapplied, which made it very convenient for the swamp princess.

~oOo~

"It won't work out," Tomoe scolded. "I can't believe you did something so foolish!"

"You said yourself that Mikage was a kami of love, marriage and match-making!" Nanami snapped right back.

"And this particular match will end in misery," Kagome interjected flatly from where she was cooking udon for their dinner.

"I won't believe that!" Nanami objected.

"Believe it or not, it makes no difference to what will be," Kagome allowed with a shrug. "Their misery may come next week, next month, or not for decades, but it will come. That is certain."

"How can you know that?" Nanami questioned, tears gathering in her eyes.

"Because she is a yokai and he is a human," Tomoe declared firmly, recently unveiled memories haunting at the backs of his violet eyes. "Such pairings are forbidden for a reason! What I don't understand is why, if you knew they would have only misery from the union, you went an accommodated them."

"Because love is like chocolate," Kagome said, and brought the meal to the table. "It brings joy as well as misery. The joy is often temporary, and the misery is frequently longer lasting, but still it is something that we _want_ , even though we know that. The misery doesn't last all that long anyway, if you know how to cope. Ningen and yokai are also both possessed of enough free will to be permitted to choose such for themselves. No kami is so powerful as to be able to completely rob another creature of their free will."

Nanami sighed. "I think maybe I'm not cut out for this 'being a god' stuff," she admitted. "I'm just a normal girl, after all. You're much better at it than I am, Higurashi-sensei."

"Maybe you just need to find a familiar of your own," Kagome suggested. "Give it another month, okay? If you don't find a familiar of your own by then, or if you really feel you're still not up for it, then I'll take the mark from you and combine it with my own. You'll still have a place here, whatever you choose, I promise. After all, you are my ward now as well."

"Thank you, Higurashi-sensei."

~oOo~

Kagome was late back from work, but she'd called the shrine during her lunch break to let Tomoe know that – and to ask him if he could make dinner that night, as she would be returning to the shrine only in time to eat it, not to cook it. Nanami was also late. She'd had cleaning duty after school.

"Please don't tell me those are mushrooms I smell in there," Nanami begged hopelessly.

Kagome closed her eyes, breathed deeply, and hummed with delight. "Yep," she confirmed.

"I hate mushrooms," Nanami moaned.

"I wonder if your lack of taste might be a reflection of your intelligence when it comes to white talismans," Tomoe quipped lowly as he scooped up a little of the broth to taste.

"Urk," Nanami grunted, and flinched slightly. She... hadn't really come very far with that.

Her motion, however, brought one of her arms in front of her body – which brought a mark there prominently into view.

Kagome was quick to grab the limb and hold it up.

"Nanami," Tomoe said in his best scolding voice as he left the pot to examine the mark. "Have you _seen_ your arm? Where did this mark come from?"

"Um, I picked up a snake at school, and I guess I must be allergic to them," Nanami offered, a little bewildered herself.

"On the contrary," Tomoe corrected with a wry twist of his lips. "That is a mark of 'favour'."

"What does that mean?" Nanami questioned.

"To put it in simple terms, it means that he had chosen you to become his wife," Tomoe explained.

"H-his _what_?" Nanami yelped.

"I think you heard me," Tomoe purred dangerously. "Now what I want to know is: how did you become so affectionate with the snake in question?"

"She probably saved him from her classmates," Kagome interjected as she released the girl's arm, thoroughly frustrated. "The weather today... a snake crawled into more than one classroom this afternoon, and few teenagers are very sensible. Boys particularly will enjoy poking sticks and brooms at snakes that come in out of the rain."

"He was beautiful," Nanami said lightly. "All white, but with green eyes, so I don't think he was an albino. You should have seen him."

"We will," Kagome countered with an unhappy shudder. "When he comes for you."

"Comes for me?" Nanami yelped.

"Correct!" Tomoe snapped. "Your heedlessness has resulted in your betrothal to a snake!"

"But- but- but I don't want to get married!" Nanami objected.

"Your opinion is immaterial," Kagome snarled unhappily as she recalled the number of times _she_ had been kidnapped to be someone's unwilling bride. "Supernatural males don't really understand about taking 'no' for an answer, especially from human girls," she added flatly.

"No... there's gotta be something you can do," Nanami begged.

Kagome sighed. "You're damn lucky," she informed the girl, and grabbed her arm again. "If this shrine weren't for a god of love, match-making and marriage, this would be a lot harder. Hard enough, really. Your escape clause is that you don't _love_ the snake you're engaged to," Kagome explained as her hands were taken over by the pink glow of her powers, with a little extra gold tinge to denote the divine power she was also using.

Then, carefully, she peeled off the mark and held it out, away from herself.

"Tomoe, the garbage bin, please," she requested.

~oOo~

"I'm afraid Momozono Nanami will not be at school today," Kagome said into her phone the next morning as Nanami herself came to sit down at the breakfast table. "She didn't have her umbrella yesterday and got caught in the rain on her walk home. She's come down with a cold. Yes. Thank you. No, there's no need for that. Yes. That would be very much appreciated. The Mikage Shrine, that's right. No, as far as I know, she's got a bully, but no friends per-say. You heard me right. Isobe, she hasn't told me any other name, but he's in her class. Mm-hm. Thank you. I wish you luck with your students today."

"Uh, what was that?" Nanami asked cautiously from her place across the breakfast table from Kagome.

"You're staying home until the snake situation is sorted out," Kagome informed the girl flatly.

"But you removed the mark!" Nanami objected.

"That won't stop him from coming," Kagome countered evenly. "And I'm not subjecting a kitsune, a creature that just plain _oozes_ sex-appeal, to a school full of teenage girls so that he can keep you safe. He'd be mobbed, and it's not worth the paperwork to make him a student."

"Onikiri and Kotetsu could follow you and keep an eye on you, as they wouldn't be seen, but they also would not be able to do much to defend you out in the ningen world," Tomoe added.

"So you'll be staying here," Kagome pronounced. "I'll set up traps for the snake around the shrine, and if he should somehow get passed them, then Tomoe and the wisps will be able to protect you _here_. I suggest you use the day to work on protective talismans. If you have enough of those around you, then you should still be safe even in the extremely unlikely event that the snake gets through all the other defences. I only have two classes today, and I got caught up on my marking last night, so I'll be back around two."

The snake was waiting, caught in one of the traps she had set, when Kagome returned. He was also burned to a crisp with more blue flames licking over his corpse. Kagome sighed and went in search of Tomoe.

"You had fun today then?" she asked when she found him.

"Oh yes," Tomoe confirmed happily. "Though I think your fib about Nanami not feeling well became truth shortly after the snake's arrival."

"If you charcoaled him on sight, I believe it," Kagome quipped.

"I did not. I gave her time to express her own opinion to him on the matter of being wedded to the filthy snake," Tomoe explained. "Then I set to him with my foxfire."

"He won't be missed by anyone?" Kagome checked.

Tomoe shook his head. "The shrine he was in service to has been long forgotten by the humans, and the kami faded away when the humans stopped coming. The shrine of a water kami that was flooded. It has disappeared beneath the waters of a dam. He won't be missed, I swear," he promised.

"You know I'm going to have to purify the shrine again though," Kagome pointed out to him. "The crispy remains of a divine serpent are bad karma. Please take his remains back to what is left of his shrine while I see to the cleansing of ours."

"You do know that, in doing so, he will be restored to health once more?" Tomoe checked. "It will be a slow process, as his kami is gone, but he will be restored."

"Didn't, good to know, do it anyway," Kagome said. "It'll keep the bad karma down."

Tomoe bowed to Kagome, and left to do her bidding.

"Onikiri, Kotetsu, fetch my bow and arrows, then wait just beyond the torii gate, please," Kagome called out to them.

"As you wish, Lady Goddess of the Land!"

~oOo~

Since Kagome had told the various headmasters at all the schools where she worked that she intended to leave their collective employ at the end of the term, they had taken to slowly phasing her out, so as not to make it a sudden change for the students. Some days she worked with the teachers who would be replacing her, some days she worked alone, and some days she got to stay home at the Mikage Shrine while her replacement tackled the students solo.

This particular day was one of the last sort.

However...

"Momozono-chan! Get up!" Kagome yelled. "You have school, and it looks like it's going to bucket down before the day is through."

"I'm up!" Nanami called back, and shortly thereafter ran out of her room, dressed for school.

"You're going to have to wear a water-proof bandage instead of – wait a bit," Kagome said, eyes narrowed at the girl as she cut herself off. "Your forehead is all one nice, uniform tone. Regular wearing of a bandage in the middle of your forehead should have a lighter patch. You stopped wearing a bandage over your kami-mark?"

Nanami nodded a little sheepishly at the sharp tone. "A few weeks ago," she admitted. "I mean, I've got your awesome beads... and okay, I don't get why they didn't burn the snake I picked up the other week -"

"Because it was a _divine_ serpent, not a yokai," Kagome explained shortly, then sighed. "Tomoe, fetch me a water-proof bandage for Momozono-chan, and then come sit on her so that I can apply it," she requested.

Tomoe's answering smile was altogether too pleased to oblige, as far as Nanami was concerned – as such, the girl promptly ran for it. She left without eating breakfast, didn't take her lunch, and barely remembered to grab her shoes and bag.

Kagome sighed.

"Onikiri, Kotetsu, please take our little kami her lunch?" Kagome requested. "And her umbrella?"

"Certainly!" the two wisps cheered.

Just as the little spirits left the shrine behind, carrying the bento between them, seven bolts of lightning struck down to the east of the shrine.

"Narukami must be having another one of her tantrums," Tomoe observed neutrally as he plucked the feathers from a duck they would be having for dinner that night. "And by the looks of it, is heading this way."

~oOo~

The storm clouds passed over the shrine though, with no divine visitors descending. Unfortunately, the clouds passed on towards Ujigami High School, which meant Nanami was most likely going to receive the ill-tempered goddess of lightning.

With no warning that she would understand.

"Go keep an eye on her," Kagome requested of Tomoe. "Do whatever you feel needs to be done. I will wait here."

"I do not feel right, leaving you unguarded," Tomoe objected.

Kagome lay a comforting hand on his shoulder. "I will set up a barrier around my bedroom," she offered. "I will stay there, and hide the room so that only we two can find it, unless I summon Onikiri or Kotetsu to me. Okay?"

Tomoe frowned, but nodded in acceptance. He knew that his mistress was more capable than the girl who shared with Kagome the mark of Mikage. That girl really needed to find her own familiar to watch after her. She was like a duck that waddled up to the kitchen door and bought along its own pot and leeks: practically inviting that she be eaten by something.

Less than half an hour after Tomoe left though, the clouds descended upon the Mikage Shrine.

Kagome didn't leave her room, but instead maintained her peace within, just as she had promised Tomoe she would. About that same time, her mobile phone rang.

"Moshi-moshi?"

" _Higurashi-sensei! There was this thunder goddess called Narukami, and she had a thing she called a 'lucky mallet', and she made Tomoe small, and she took Mikage's mark from me, and she took Onikiri and Kotetsu, and -_ " Nanami's voice rambled frantically.

"Calm down," Kagome protested. "Take a deep breath Momozono-chan. The world isn't ending."

She heard a rattling breath echo down the line.

"Is Tomoe-san with you?" Kagome asked.

" _Yeah_ ," Nanami confirmed. " _And he's got a fever. I'm worried._ "

"Bring him home to the shrine," Kagome instructed.

" _But... Narukami..._ "

"Is also here, yes," Kagome confirmed. "But Tomoe-san is my familiar, and mine to care for. You are also my ward, and the shrine is your home, even if you lack Mikage's mark now. I warded your bedroom earlier so that only you, the wisps, and I could find it, and my bedroom is similarly warded, though Tomoe can find my room and you can't. We'll figure something out," she promised. "Just... don't come barging into the shrine all guns blazing, alright? Sneak."

" _Okay._ "

~oOo~

Tomoe stumbled softly, weakly into Kagome's room, and she was quick to catch him when he began to fall.

"Nanami?" she asked gently.

"Safe, in her room, and exclusively human once more," Tomoe answered, his voice weak.

"You've done well, Tomoe," Kagome praised softly as she cradled him in her lap and gently stroked his fevered brow. "You've done so well. Rest now."

He hardly needed prompting. Eyes were closed, breathing evened, and the little fox in her arms passed out there.

"So much youki in such a small body," Kagome noted to herself. "He really just got shrunk, not properly regressed. That's got to be uncomfortable."

She checked, and found that he had a fever. Not as bad as Nanami probably thought it was, but Kagome had experience from taking care of Shippo. Kagome's heart ached as she tenderly ran her fingers through Tomoe's hair, letting air be carried to his sweaty brow to help cool him. Shippo. It had been so long since she'd held a fox kit in her arms. She hadn't realised until then just how much she had missed it until she was holding another – that Tomoe was not truly a kit didn't seem to matter to her heart, or to her arms that finally felt full again as they held him to her chest.

Even as she quietly tended to Tomoe – who she had put to sleep in her own bed – it was easy to hear what was going on in other parts of the shrine.

The thunder goddess was not very good at 'quiet'.

"I think I shall quite like it here," she said from the next room. "It is in better condition than I thought it would be, what with Mikage having been gone for twenty years."

"Oh, that is Lady Kagome's doing," Kotetsu offered.

"Who?"

Kagome could hear the irritation in the question, could practically see the twitching eyebrow.

"Lord Mikage granted his mark to Lady Nanami and Lady Kagome both, and it is through Lady Kagome's efforts that we had the materials to repair the shrine to the glory you see before you," Onikiri declared happily.

"You mean to say there's more than _one_ human Land God?" Narukami thundered. "Where is she then?"

"Um..." the two wisps hesitated.

"We do not know," Onikiri admitted.

"She sent us out this morning with Lady Nanami's lunch, and we returned with you. We have not seen her," Kotetsu clarified.

The kami growled. "And where is Tomoe?" she demanded, clearly more angry about that detail. "I don't know why I ever thought that fox would give in and come running back here," she complained. "Attention please: _bring me Tomoe_!" she commanded, and of course there was a roll of thunder to accompany her words.

Two voices that were not Onikiri or Kotetsu immediately cried out "as you wish".

Kagome hummed softly to herself as she stroked Tomoe's ears.

"They will fail," she whispered tenderly to him.

~oOo~

"Onikiri, Kotetsu," Kagome summoned to her window.

"Lady Kagome!" the wisps wept as they came to her.

She smiled at them. "Listen you two, I need you to wake Momozono-chan for school, and make sure she gets this money so that she can buy her lunch today, as I won't be able to make her anything," she instructed. It was a good thing she didn't have any classes to teach in the mornings on Fridays. She generally spent the day marking papers until her class right before the end of the school day. It should be possible to deal with the situation in its entirety before then.

"Of course Lady Kagome!" Kotetsu declared, and hurried off (with the money) to wake Nanami. The girl would be unable to see him, but she could and would still feel a glass of water splashed on her face.

"Lady Kagome, Lady Narukami is so scary," Onikiri confided, "and Lord Tomoe -"

"Tomoe-kun is here with me," Kagome comforted the little wisp. "I have been tending him all night, and he is safe." It had taken a lot of effort, but she'd been able to find a way to balance his youki within his new, smaller body. He'd slept right through it, and she wouldn't know exactly how well she had done until he woke... but she was fairly confident.

Even if it did take eight white talismans.

"What are you doing here?!" Narukami's voice came, thundering and demanding.

"I told you yesterday, this is my home," Nanami's voice answered. "Higurashi-sensei is my guardian, and she said that I could stay here even if I don't have the god's mark on my forehead."

"If you are here... then where is your familiar? Or I should say... your _former_ familiar," Narukami demanded. "Where is Tomoe?!"

"Tomoe was never my familiar," Nanami answered shortly. "He was and is Higurashi-sensei's."

" _What?!_ "

The sound of a closing shoji was all her answer, and Kagome knew that Nanami had left the shrine for school. Good. She would be safe from the temperamental kami there.

"Lady Narukami, we cannot find Lord Tomoe anywhere," reported one of the two voices that belonged to the familiars that Narukami had brought with her.

"Nor can we find any sign of the Lady Kagome," the other supplied.

An inarticulate cry of rage was echoed by the thunder overhead.

"I'm sorry Tomoe-kun," Kagome whispered, "but I have to face her. I think she means to destroy our home."

"Please, Kagome," Tomoe called weakly as he woke, his little hand reaching out to her. "Be careful."

Kagome smiled tenderly down at him, and ran her fingers through his hair one more time. "I will be," she promised.

~oOo~

"I have no need of this pathetic shrine!" Narukami declared with a roar, and thunder rumbled dangerously overhead. "I shall burn it to cinders!"

"Like hell you will!" Kagome snapped as she stepped into the main receiving room of the shrine, armed with her bow and arrows, dressed in the traditional kimono she had taken to wearing since she graduated from school – one of the few connections she could have with the past in this present day. It was a good deal more modest a kimono than Narukami was wearing too.

"Huh?"

"I am Higurashi Kagome, and this is not just a shrine for a kami, it is _my home_. So far, you have abused my familiar, tormented my wisps, and insulted my ward. It ends _now_ ," Kagome said firmly.

"If you are looking for Tomoe, he is missing," Narukami said, almost pleasantly. "And the little human girl has gone away."

"To school, yes, I sent her off," Kagome confirmed. "But really, you say my familiar is missing?"

An angry tick appeared on Narukami's brow.

"You say that as though you can find him, when my familiars have been looking all night and have found no trace of him," Narukami said with a sneer.

"Of course I can," Kagome answered with easy confidence. "But what does it matter to _you_ if I can find _my_ familiar?"

"Find him... and I'll restore him," Narukami offered.

"And the mark of Mikage you took?" Kagome pressed.

Narukami sneered again, but stepped up and pressed her lips to Kagome's forehead. Kagome's body glowed as she took on the full divine powers of Mikage.

"There," she said. "You're more worthy than that little girl anyway. I can see your own spiritual powers are strong, and had only been increased by being granted a portion of divinity."

"Thank you," Kagome replied, and then she did something she hadn't done for a long time. Something that she had actually learned from Shippo. She picked the kami's pocket, and took the lucky mallet from her. "Get smaller, Narukami!" she ordered as she swung it up, around, and down between them.

The kami gasped. There was a flash of golden light. The woman was a toddler before Kagome, and quite stunned to find herself so.

"You are going to apologise on bended knee to Tomoe-kun for what you did to him," Kagome informed the little goddess as she picked her up by the back of her kimono, turned, and marched back into the shrine.

Two dogs spirits followed behind, weeping for their Lady Narukami.

Kagome deposited the childish (and now child-like) kami on the tatami, and went to her room for Tomoe.

"Are you well?" she checked.

"I am," he confirmed. "Though... I do not like how helpless I am right now. I cannot perform the duties of a familiar like this."

Kagome smiled softly. "Forgive me then, because I took great pleasure in caring for you, and isn't the duty of a familiar to bring happiness to their kami?" she questioned.

Tomoe's little face pinked in embarrassment.

"It has been a long time... since I could care for a fox kit," Kagome said softly. She quickly shook off the nostalgic sentimentality though. She knew full well that demons never appreciated that sort of thing. With them, it was so much about being the strongest. Kagome raised the mallet. "Grow bigger, Tomoe," she said, and swung it down.

A flash of gold light.

"I am restored," Tomoe observed as he looked over himself.

"Mm," Kagome agreed, and reached out to him. "I admit, I didn't expect your hair to grow with the rest of you," she commented softly as she twisted her fingers through Tomoe's now very long silver locks. "I have to say I like it though."

"It seems I owe you," Tomoe stated.

Kagome shook her head. "You're my familiar," she said, "and someone I care about. It is my duty, honour and pleasure to care for you."

"You have my thanks," Tomoe offered, and pressed his lips to Kagome's.

"What was that for?" Kagome breathed when he released her lips to her own control once more.

"The contract between us is re-sealed," Tomoe explained.

Kagome smiled. "Don't think it was actually broken," she pointed out fondly. "But as you like. Now, come. Narukami is waiting to apologise to you for the trouble she has caused."


	5. Chapter 5

"Welcome home Lady Nanami!" the wisps chirped.

Nanami didn't answer them.

Kagome sighed. "Tomoe-kun, I need one of your hairs," she requested, and held out a hand to him. She had arrived back at the shrine herself only five minutes before Nanami. Having a car, as opposed to walking, made enough of a difference some days.

Obediently, he plucked one of the newly very long strands from his head and passed it over.

"Momozono-chan, please pass me your beads," Kagome requested.

Nanami, upon Kagome's request for a hair from Tomoe, had frozen in place and stared fixedly at the restored fox.

"Momozono-chan," Kagome called again, a bit louder.

"Huh?" the girl asked, snapping out of her daze.

"Your beads," Kagome requested, hand held out for them.

"Uh, sure," Nanami agreed, and pulled them from over her head.

Kagome set about threading the hair from Tomoe through the strand of beads, while Nanami went back to staring at the fox like she'd never seen him before. With Tomoe's hair through the beads, Nanami would be able to see spirits, like the wisps, once more whenever she wore it. As she had lost her divine mark, she had lost that power.

"Is there something on my face?" Tomoe eventually demanded of the girl.

"Uh, no, no, nothing at all," the girl denied quickly.

"It seems that Momozono-chan has a previously undiscovered weakness for males with long hair," Kagome quipped lightly, teasingly, as she slipped the beads over Nanami's head once more. "Or maybe it's just that, for the first time, she is feeling the full force of your natural kitsune sex-appeal and unintended pheromones. There is a reason we call very attractive people foxes and vixens, after all," Kagome said with a knowing curl to her lips.

Tomoe winced. He had, according to Kagome's orders, reminded her about finding him something to read on the subject of foxwives, and then – again in accordance with her orders – read all of what she had presented to him on the subject. Kitsune, it seemed, made a habit of seducing and marrying humans. His near-affair with Yukiji, now remembered as it hadn't been for centuries, was hardly an isolated incident.

"Don't fall for him," Kagome advised Nanami kindly. "He's a heart-breaker if ever there was one."

~oOo~ 

The following Monday, Nanami's bad habit of forgetting her umbrella came back to bite her in the form of a high fever and a cold. Thanks to Kagome making sure she didn't miss her classes (except for that one time when there was a snake out for her hand in marriage), Nanami _could_ afford to take the day off school.

Silly thing didn't want to have another absence on her record though, or she would be coming dangerously close to having to repeat the year.

"Hardly the disaster you seem to think," Kagome stated. "I was held back a year for absences. I managed just fine once I was able to regularly attend though, and think of it this way: if you're held back, then that Isobe boy won't be in your class."

"Oh my gosh, that's right!" Nanami realised happily.

"Still, if it means that much to you, I'll go in your place," Kagome offered.

"What?" Nanami questioned.

"What?" Tomoe echoed.

Kagome ignored them both and pulled out her phone.

"Hello Usui-san, it's Higurashi Kagome. No, I'm not calling to say I can't work today. I'm calling about Momozono Nanami, as her guardian. I'm afraid she won't be coming to school today, as she is running a fever. Mm, the rain was heavy this weekend, and she was out in it without her umbrella or warm enough clothing more than I approved of. My housemate will be looking after her while I'm at work. She really wants to be in class today though, and I get off at lunch. My intent is to check on her then and – ah, you have it. Yes, if she's feeling better in the afternoon I'll see she gets to class. Thank you. Yes, I'll see you soon. Well I called because I wanted to make sure the school knew, and I'm just as likely to get caught up in preparing for my lessons once I get there myself. See you."

"I suppose if your intent is to take Nanami's place in class, you will need me to transform you," Tomoe suggested unhappily.

"It's certainly better than sending a sick Nanami, or sending you in her place," Kagome pointed out as she put her phone away in her pocket. "Tomoe-kun, you're a wonderful familiar and a powerful demon, but you haven't the first clue on what it takes to be a high school girl," she stated, and a smile curled over her lips. "Be grateful for that."

Tomoe scoffed. "Grateful that I'm not a ningen female? Always," he answered firmly.

Kagome gently and carefully stroked his head, mindful of not messing up his (still long) hair which had been pulled back in a low, loose tail.

"I'll be back at lunch to check up on you both and to get transformed into Momozono-chan," Kagome said. "Be good."

~oOo~

"Nanami!" Kurama called across the hallway with a smile. "Hey, glad to see you could make it today. I heard you were sick."

"Fever," Kagome answered with a tired sigh. She had never really liked high school, but at least Nanami didn't have three annoying friends like Kagome had done. With the latest move of hers, out of her apartment and to the Mikage Shrine, she'd finally been able to shake them. They'd only made any contact with her for somewhere to crash lately, and without knowing where she'd moved to, they couldn't do that any more. "But it's come down enough that I could make it for the second part of the day. What about you? You've been missing from class for a while."

Kurama smiled. "I brought you a souvenir," he said, and produced a red gift bag.

Kagome shook her head, but she was smiling as she accepted it. "I am immune to your attempts at seduction, Kurama," she informed him with easy playfulness.

"Aw, give a guy a break, would ya Nanami?" Kurama begged sweetly. "All I want is your love."

Kagome scoffed lightly. "Yeah, I really don't think that's what you're after somehow," she teased, and was aware of the fact that the red-head carefully kept from touching her. Kagome was, after all, wearing a set of beads just like the ones she'd given to Nanami. Not those beads exactly, but so similar as it would be impossible to tell the difference.

It seemed the teenaged tengu had learned his lesson about touching the girl while she wore beads that were meant as a barrier to keep her safe from yokai. Good.

"No, really Nanami," Kurama insisted, and fluttered his hands over her shoulders, careful to not actually touch.

"And I really don't think that pop-stars are cut out to be familiars, which is what you'd become if you were to press your pretty lips to mine right now," Kagome added, then waved him off with a casual smile and turned to continue on her way.

After all, the last time he'd seen Nanami, she had a kami-mark on her brow, and Kagome did still have hers, even if Nanami didn't any more.

"Oh, Nanami!" Kurama called after her. "I wanted to mention something else to you," he said.

Kagome turned back to give him her attention.

"In all seriousness. It has to do with the miasma in the air around here. It's grown heavier," Kurama explained, and he did seem genuinely concerned for her. "Don't go into dark spaces by yourself."

"Your concern is touching," Kagome allowed with a smile. "But I think I'll be just fine," she added, and stroked the beads she was wearing meaningfully.

Kurama winced at the reminder.

~oOo~

Kagome had been aware of the thin miasma that was suddenly floating its way throughout the school from the moment Kurama became a student. She had credited it simply to his arrival. She had also been aware that it was thicker than usual when she had arrived as a teacher that morning. She hadn't been able to conduct a thorough search for it at the time though. Now, disguised as Nanami, Kagome found the source of the miasma in the girl's locker room, where they got changed for sports class.

"Does anyone else feel like they're being watched?" Kagome asked Nanami's peers as she casually palmed a white talisman. They were wonderfully useful, versatile little things. So much more covert and subtle than her arrows – though of course they had their places too.

"This place has been creepy forever," one of the other girls answered.

"Especially in the dark," another confirmed nervously.

"Hm," Kagome hummed to herself, and then she dawdled so that she would be left behind by the rest of Nanami's peers. Soon, it was just herself and one other girl in the locker room – she was having trouble finding her headband – and her friend at the door.

"You're so slow, Ami!" the girl at the door said. "I'm going ahead without you!"

"Kei?" Ami wailed when the lights went out. "Kei, you turned the lights out! You know how dark and scary it gets down here! Kei, are you there?" she asked nervously, and then started fumbling her way down the row of lockers, headed for the door.

"Who's a cute, cute little girl?" a voice, slimy and lecherous, asked in a voice that echoed from beyond the shadows. "Does she have the sweet, sweet taste of candy? What flavour are you, precious? I _lick_... Strawberry!" it declared happily. "Yummy!"

The girl, Ami, screamed in fright.

Kagome, who was nearer to the door of the room, opened it, letting light in and giving a way out to the other girl. Once she was out, Kagome closed the door behind her and turned to face the low-level pervert that had taken to watching the girls while they were getting changed.

"I have little tolerance for perverts," Kagome said flatly as she gathered her miko powers into the white talisman she had palmed earlier. "And even less for demon perverts."

"No, please, I didn't do anything wrong," the large-tongued demon begged. "I was just watching!"

Kagome stabbed the talisman (which had 'blade of purification' written on it) through the yokai's chest, effectively turning it to dust. That done, she did a quick cleansing of the room to clear it of miasma and prevent another such visitor from showing up too soon.

"Nanami!" Ami had returned, and was clearly doing something very brave, because she was terrified but she had come back.

Kagome smiled at the girl.

"I found your headband," she offered. "Come on, before we're even more late than we are," she urged gently.

Ami blinked up at Kagome – Ami really was very petite; Nanami wasn't exactly tall, but Ami was even shorter – and though there were tears in her eyes, she nodded and gratefully accepted the headband from Kagome. Her legs were rather shaky though.

"I thought I told you to stay away from dark places, Nanami," Kurama said as the pair stepped properly out of the girl's change room.

Ami chose that moment to collapse.

Kurama, being a gentleman as well as a karasu tengu (and wanting to make a good impression on Nanami at the same time), caught her before she fell too far.

"And I told you I'd be just fine," Kagome answered easily. "Oh, have you two properly met yet? No, I suppose not. You don't actually pay much attention to anybody in class who hasn't done some special thing to gain your attention. Kurama, the girl who you are so kindly keeping upright is Ami. She's had a bit of a scare, but very bravely ran back to save me from the thing that frightened her so terribly."

Kurama blinked at that, and looked down at the extra-petit girl in his arms.

"That's certainly impressive," he praised. "Is it just Ami?"

"Nekota," Ami supplied. "Nekota Ami. Th-thank you for catching me, Kurama-sama," she said nervously.

Kurama smiled down at her, and it was a genuine, kind smile. "No problem," he told her gently.

~oOo~

Sport class took up the rest of the afternoon, and then it was back home to Mikage Shrine for Kagome. She was surprised by the sight that greeted her upon her return though.

"Tomoe-kun," Kagome called. "Who is this that you are beating so thoroughly?"

"Mizuki, the snake," Tomoe answered.

"The same one that wanted me for his bride," Nanami supplied from where she was sitting, wrapped up in several thick blankets, on the porch.

"Lady Nanami and Master Tomoe agreed that you might like to discuss the snake's purpose for visiting," Onikiri said.

"Which is why he is not currently a pile of charcoal," Kotetsu added.

Kagome nodded. "Let him up, Tomoe-kun," she instructed. "I'll meet with him. Please take Momozono-chan back inside too please."

Tomoe released his hold on the battered divine snake, bowed to Kagome, and ushered Nanami back indoors.

"I had heard that Tomoe was taking the place of his lady and mistress at school, while she was home sick, so I came to offer comfort," Mizuki explained once it was just the two of them.

"Well, you heard wrong," Kagome said plainly, "and I'm hearing a subtext of 'ulterior motive'."

Mizuki sheepishly rubbed the back of his head, then produced an incense burner from within his robes and set it between them.

"It is a time-travelling incense burner," Mizuki explained. "It can send people, their souls or their corporeal bodies, into the past. I had hoped to illuminate Nanami as to the true nature of the wild fox she had taken as her familiar..."

Kagome set her hand firmly over the burner and pulled it away from the snake. She didn't know where everyone got the idea that Nanami was the exclusive goddess-in-residence at Mikage Shrine (though she suspected it was because Kagome kept her mark covered, while Nanami didn't bother to hide it at all when she'd had it), but she was glad enough of it all the same. She also had no idea where people got the idea that Tomoe was Nanami's familiar. Again though, it seemed to come in handy now and then.

"Right," Kagome said. "Well then, we'll hang onto this, and you can go. You're clearly not responsible enough to be entrusted with such a dangerous mystical object."

She still had the lucky mallet too, just in case.

Mizuki gaped at her.

"Tomoe-kun, please eject our visitor," Kagome called as she stood and left the snake.

"Gladly," the fox answered with dark pleasure in his tone.

~oOo~

Kagome stretched and sighed happily.

"Ah! Finals season!" she declared.

Nanami groaned in displeasure at the reminder.

Kagome giggled. "Sorry Momozono-chan," she apologised. "I remember I always hated tests when I was a student too. As a teacher now though, it means it's the last set of papers I have to mark, and since I'm quitting teaching once the term is done, they'll be the _very_ last set of papers I have to mark," she explained.

"She could always drop out," Tomoe suggested. "Focus on duties to the shrine."

"No, she couldn't," Kagome corrected sharply. "Momozono-chan is no longer a kami, she isn't bound to the shrine by anything but her love of the place. School is important for ningen, and there is a great deal of shame to be had in dropping out. Her few chores around the shrine are possible to complete on the weekend."

"You are leaving school to spend all of your time here," Tomoe pointed out.

"I hold all of the deific power of this shrine now. I am an adult. I can be respected for my choice to take on a deserted shrine and make it a profitable place once more," Kagome explained patiently to her familiar. "Especially since I was raised on a different shrine myself. Momozono-chan is now exclusively ningen, no special powers at all. I had to weave one of your hairs into her string of beads so that she can continue to see Onikiri and Kotetsu."

Tomoe nodded his understanding. "She can have a normal, human life," he recognised. "Even if she is living at a shrine and can see spirits."

"Um, right here..." Nanami said a little awkwardly after having watched the conversation nervously.

Kagome laughed. "I know that it's not for a little while yet, but you should start making plans with your friends for summer vacation," she suggested.

Since Kagome's incident with Ami, Kurama, and the demon in the girl's room, Nanami had been able to make friends with the extra-petit girl and her tall friend Kei.

"Maybe the beach?" Kagome suggested with a smile. "You have a swimsuit, right?"

Nanami blushed and shook her head. "I can swim fine, but no suit," she admitted.

"Then, last day of finals, I know that Ujigami lets out early. I'll give you some money that day, and you can go shopping for a new suit," Kagome offered.

Nanami clapped her hands together in delight. "Thank you, Higurashi-sensei!" she cheered, and bowed her head in gratitude.

~oOo~

"So, you want to tell me why you broke out into a cold sweat when I said the word 'beach'?" Kagome asked, just a touch sternly, once Nanami had left for school that day. It was clearly not so much of a request as it was phrased to be.

"I, uh, I may have crossed the Dragon King a bit over five-hundred years ago," Tomoe admitted.

"Crossed?" Kagome repeated lowly, one eyebrow raised.

"Whole-sale slaughter at one of the gates to his palace, destruction of said gate, and theft of his right eye," Tomoe admitted sheepishly.

"Would this be the same Dragon King that rules the sea and can hold an extremely detailed grudge for excessive amounts of time?" Kagome clarified.

Tomoe winced, and nodded.

"I suggest you retrieve it before we go to the beach as chaperones for Momozono-chan and her friends," Kagome instructed.

"It, uh... It was a cure for Yukiji. She was sick. Dying. I fed it to her so that she would live," Tomoe admitted freely, if quite sheepishly.

"Therefore its current location is... probably within either her descendant or reincarnation. Considering the amount of time that has passed, possibly even both. Souls do like to stay within certain family lines where possible," Kagome mused. "Well, it looks like I have a use for the snake's incense burner."

"What?" Tomoe asked, confused.

Kagome shrugged. "As one who has been to the past before, I'm fairly good at recognising family traits in ancestors. Not bad at reincarnation either," she stated a little ruefully, and got up from her chair to go and lie down in her room, time-travelling incense burner lit and set by her head.

She emerged an hour later, stiff, but with answers.

"Convenient all over," she declared as she hobbled her way over to the kitchen table. "It's in Nanami."

"What?!" Tomoe gasped.

"Nanami is a descendant of Yukiji," Kagome re-stated simply. "Now Tomoe-kun, do _not_ get your hakama in a bunch over that," she instructed as kindly as she could, and woke her fingers into his still-long hair. "Nanami is _not_ Yukiji."

"I know that," Tomoe insisted firmly, nose in the air. "And I know better now than to get into any kind of romantic entanglement with a ningen. I will never again allow myself to love a human."

Kagome nodded. "Good luck with that," she said, her tone utterly neutral. "I'll retrieve the eye from Nanami when she goes to sleep tonight."

"Wait. How do _you_ know the Dragon King?"

~oOo~

"You've gotta be kidding me," Kei objected. "Seriously? What are they doing here?" she demanded, and pointed an accusing finger at where Kagome and Tomoe were standing with Nanami.

"Um, well, Kagome-sensei is my guardian," Nanami explained sheepishly.

Kagome had told the girl to use her first name now, since she was no longer a teacher at the girl's school.

"And I happen to like the beach just as much as you," Kagome added with a smirk.

"We can't have guys or adults hanging around us!" Kei objected, and especially got up in Tomoe's face. "It's gonna look like we're with you! No one will come cruising for us!"

"Which cruise line?" Tomoe queried, completely deadpan.

"Kei broke up with her boyfriend yesterday," Ami confided softly.

"Tomoe-kun, don't aggravate the girl," Kagome scolded gently, and with a hand on each of their shoulders,separated the teenager from her familiar. "Don't worry about a thing Kei-chan. I promise, we won't cramp your style, but you'll be able to leave your bags with us, and we're here if there are any emergencies, okay?"

Kei pouted, crossed her arms under her chest (which rather enhanced it), and stuck her nose into the air.

Kagome giggled. "Come on, let's all get changed while Tomoe sets up the chairs and umbrella," she instructed.

Tomoe nodded to his mistress and set about setting up their space while Kagome ushered the girls away to get changed.

Kei had a grey camo two-piece, Nanami had found herself a polka-dot two-piece with a cute little skirt around the bottom part, Ami returned in a pink one-piece with a frill around the bottom (it continued down enough to look like a very short dress) and holding a ring-float (also with a frill). Kagome's suit was the one that almost made Tomoe swallow his tongue though when the younger girls parted and let her through to the deck chairs.

Or maybe it was just that the simple white bikini showed off the voluptuous curves that her usual kimono and hakama choices hid very, very well. Not only that, but the long black hair that Kagome generally wore hanging freely down her back had been swept up into a simple bun on top of her head, which showed off the line of her neck. It was the same simple up-do she'd always put her hair in when she got to relax in the hot springs back in the Sengoku, so it wasn't anything terribly fancy, and there were plenty of stray hairs falling out of it.

Whatever it was, Tomoe didn't utter a single word when Kagome asked him to put lotion on her back. Rather, he silently and almost mechanically performed the task requested, eyes wide and jaw tightly clenched against falling open the whole time.

~oOo~

"Higurashi-sensei! Tomoe-san!" Kei cried as she ran up to where they were reclining. "It's Ami and Nanami!"

Both were up out of their chairs in a flash and followed the tall teen down to the waterline.

Nanami was there, coughing and curled up small.

"What happened?" Kagome demanded as she knelt down to wrap her hands around the girl's shoulders.

"Ami," Nanami answered. "I lost her. I went down to look and I couldn't find her!" she said, and tears were running from her eyes – likely a combination of strong emotion and her sinuses trying to clear any way they could. "She doesn't know how to swim! She could be drowning! We have to get to her before it's too late! Please Kagome-sensei, Tomoe-san, please! I need your help!"

"Shh," Kagome comforted the girl, and cut her eyes across to her familiar. "It'll be okay," she promised. "Tomoe-kun will get Ami-chan back."

Tomoe nodded in confirmation and waded out into the water. He dived, and to those who knew, there was a flash of power, and soon enough he surfaced again. Ami was in his arms, coughing up water.

"Ami!" Kei yelled in desperate relief as Tomoe set the girl down on the sand.

"How are you feeling? Are you okay?" Nanami asked.

"I'm fine, I just swallowed a lot of water," Ami answered weakly.

"Kei-chan, Nanami-chan, please take Ami-chan back to the deck chairs," Kagome requested. "I think she's had enough water for a little while."

"Yeah," the girls agreed, and moved to help Ami stand.

"Thank you," Kei said to Tomoe before they could start walking. "You saved her."

Nanami added her own smile to that. "Yes Tomoe-san, thank you for saving Ami."

The trio of teenagers turned and moved off back to the deck chairs, but as they moved, Kagome felt a rise in youki around them. The kind that was meant to be a barrier so that normal ningens wouldn't see the dealings of yokai.

"Yes, thank you, Tomoe. So nice of you to drop by the ocean for a visit," a voice purred from just beyond the waterline. "Here you are just when I'd begun to give up on ever finding you. I've been waiting a lifetime for you to join me for a swim, Tomoe."

"Hello Dragon King, Sakuna Ryou," Kagome greeted as she stepped forward, past her familiar to stand between him and the yokai that had emerged from the ocean. "I understand you have business with my familiar."

The Dragon King frowned at Kagome. "How do you know me?" he demanded lowly.

Kagome flared her miko powers.

Ryou's single eye widened. "Shikon no Miko," he breathed.

Kagome smiled. "So you do remember me, that's good. You should then also remember the debt you owe me," she declared firmly.

The Dragon King grimaced, but nodded reluctantly.

"Debt he owes you?" Tomoe asked, a little incredulously. Despite his asking since their first conversation on the subject of the Dragon King, she had yet to answer him.

"I saved the life of his lovely wife once," Kagome explained easily – reminding Ryou of the specifics (even if he didn't really need her to) as much as explaining to Tomoe.

Naraku had been rather keen to absorb a member of yokai royalty, and Kamehime had been away from the ocean for a visit with some river turtles. InuYasha had been off with Kikyo, Sango injured, and Miroku quickly poisoned. It had been Kagome's arrows pretty much exclusively that had saved the knocked-out Kamehime from being taken by the foul hanyou.

"Now Ryou, what business do you have with my familiar?" Kagome pressed. "Currently I'm the kami of the Mikage Shrine, and Tomoe-kun is bound to me," she explained at his slightly confused look.

"Exactly five-hundred and twenty-six years, two-hundred and eight days ago, at eighteen minutes and forty-one seconds past two a.m," Ryou listed off, "a certain yokai fox called _Tomoe_ attacked and wiped out seven dragons, three sharks, five rays, and one sea-slug platoon at the north gate of my palace."

Kagome whistled lowly, impressed.

"He then destroyed the north gate and surrounding buildings, and finally, he stole my right eye and fled. _He_ ," Ryou accused, and pointed one clawed finger at Tomoe, "is that fox. It is time for him to pay back what he owes."

"Mm, well, can't really do much about the dead dragons, sharks, rays or the sea-slug platoon," Kagome admitted, "and I expect you've already long repaired the damage to your palace... but I think you can forgive all that as a favour to me, can't you?"

Ryou grit his teeth and scowled. "That much, I suppose so. But that still leaves the matter of my right eye," he insisted.

"Tomoe-kun, fetch the bag," Kagome instructed.

Tomoe bowed and hurried to obey.

"See, Tomoe-kun stole your eye not for his own sake, but to save the life of a dying human," Kagome explained while her familiar was away. "There was no time for the eye to be taken 'properly', and so it saved her life, but did not grant her eternity. It has been passed down through that line as each generation conceived a child. Of course, over five-hundred years, it became a rather small, shrivelled thing, but I found it, and between the powers of a miko and a kami, I was able to restore it."

Ryou's single eye lit up in eager anticipation.

Tomoe returned.

Kagome took the little bag from him, and removed the restored eye of the Dragon King from within.

"I believe that will see all of Tomoe's debt against you removed, hmm?" Kagome suggested as she held the little orb out to him. "Though, I have to say Ryou, the patch is rather dashing."

"All debts cleared," the Dragon King confirmed as he took back his eye from Kagome with a smile and quickly swallowed the eye, restoring it to its correct place. "Thank you, Lady Goddess, Miko of the Shikon no Tama."

"Please pass on my warmest greetings to Kamehime," Kagome requested with a friendly smile.

Ryou nodded, and vanished back into the waves.

Tomoe sighed in relief. "That was... far less eventful than I had anticipated," he admitted. "Damn."

Kagome laughed. "I'm sorry to have robbed you of a chance to do battle with a demon of comparable power, but Kamehime-chan is very particular about her husband not getting scars on his face," she explained freely. "If you want, I don't mind you taking a day for yourself to get your sword bloody."

"No," Tomoe declined. "My place is at your side."


	6. Chapter 6

"A mixer?" Kagome queried when Nanami returned from school and told her about the outing that Kei had roped her into. "I take it from the way you're talking about it that you don't want to go," she noted wryly as she carefully combed Tomoe's long silver hair.

He didn't like being a burden of any kind to Kagome, but she enjoyed the act, and had ordered him to sit down, stop grumbling, and let her take comfort in his presence for a while. So, obedient familiar that he was (and thanks to the sacred word binding powers of the familiar contract) Tomoe was sitting and letting Kagome comb his hair.

Nanami nodded sadly. "I mean, it would be nice to have a boyfriend, but..." she hesitated.

"But..." Kagome prompted.

"I've never been to anything fancy like a mixer before," Nanami said, "and that's because I never _want_ to go to anything fancy like a mixer."

"I'll tell Kei you can't go if you like," Kagome offered.

"Thank you!" Nanami wept happily.

"And you'll be able to get on top of your homework," Kagome added thoughtfully. "Maybe even study ahead a little."

Nanami's bright, wet smile suddenly became a mournful frown.

Tomoe felt his mistress shake with suppressed giggles, and mindfully didn't laugh himself – though he did smile a bit.

"I'll make you a deal Nanami-chan," Kagome offered once she'd fully suppressed all of her giggles, so that she wasn't even shaking with the force of them wanting to be let out any more. "Do all your chores, homework, and a little extra study, and next Sunday we can go to the amusement park."

"Really?" Nanami asked, stars shining in her eyes.

"Really?" Tomoe repeated, breaking his silence.

Kagome laughed. "Really," she confirmed. "All work and no play makes us dull. Besides, I haven't been to the amusement park in ages, and I know a ride you would just love, Tomoe-kun."

"Ride?" Tomoe queried.

"Which one Kagome-sensei?" Nanami pressed.

Kagome smiled. "The roller coaster," she answered.

Nanami flinched and managed to vocalise an 'urk' sound. Clearly, roller coasters weren't her thing.

"You can invite Kei and Ami too. And Kurama, if you'd like," Kagome offered, "since I know you're kind of friends with him now as well."

~oOo~

"Hey, I thought that those beads meant that any yokai that touched you got burned," Kurama complained when, upon meeting them at the amusement park, he found Nanami with Tomoe's hand on her shoulder.

Ami and Kei hadn't joined them yet.

"Since Nanami-chan is no longer a kami, she needs to possess part of a yokai's body in able to be able to see the supernatural, like the wisps Onikiri and Kotetsu that live at the shrine," Tomoe stated.

"I took one of Tomoe's hairs and wove it into the beads," Kagome explained. "Thus, he is now immune from being burned by them. If you were to donate a feather, and Nanami agreed, I could add it to the beads as well and you wouldn't have to worry about burning any time you casually touched her."

"It's okay with me," Nanami confirmed. "I mean, I know Kurama's not going to do anything now to hurt me." Ever since she had stopped being a kami, she had been safe from Kurama. No one was going to tell her exactly why though. "And if he ever starts with being a jerk again, I can take the feather off the beads and he'll burn again, right?"

Kagome nodded in confirmation.

Kurama instantly released his wings – just quickly – and passed over a feather.

Kagome pulled out one of the shorter hairs that hung around her face (the rest of her hair was tied back, something she'd only done before at the beach, and even so it was a different style this time), and used that to tie the feather in amongst the beads.

"There," she declared. "All done."

"Hey Nanami!" a pair of female voices called out. Ami and Kei had arrived.

"Hey Kurama," Kei greeted calmly. "Tomoe-san, Higurashi-sensei."

"H-hello Kurama," Ami stuttered shyly. "Thank you for inviting us, Higurashi-sensei, Tomoe-san."

"My pleasure, girls," Kagome demurred. "Now, we'll have dinner at sunset and finish off the day at the ferris wheel for a night viewing, so we can see all the lights from above. Here's my phone number," she said, and handed out slips of paper to each of them. Even Nanami, though she knew the number already. "Because I expect there are certain rides you will and won't want to go on, so we'll probably split up and meet up a few times throughout the day as we go around. We will definitely meet back here at five though, before continuing on to dinner. Okay?"

"Yes ma'am!" the teenagers (and Kurama) all agreed with a salute.

Kagome chuckled. "Alright, Nanami-chan, here's money for rides and a couple of snacks. Ami-chan, Kei-chan, do you have money or -"

"We're good," Kei said, cutting Kagome off, and Ami nodded in agreement.

"I'm not even going to ask you, Kurama," Kagome said with a joke in her tone.

Kurama laughed in agreement. Yes, he definitely had enough money for a few rides and snacks at an amusement park.

~oOo~

"Excuse me," a shy little voice asked.

Kagome and Tomoe turned, and Kagome smiled to see a trio of girls in lolita fashion there with their cameras.

"Let me guess," she said, "pictures?"

"Please?" the girl in gothic lolita requested hopefully.

"Of, or with?" Kagome asked.

"Oh, both!" one of her friends, in sweet lolita, instantly yelped out hopefully. "And do you mind if I post the pictures on my blog?"

"Her hat is crooked," Tomoe noted softly, eyes fixed on the tiny top hat that the gothic loli was wearing.

"It's meant to be," Kagome whispered back. "It's held there with a clip."

"Oh."

"Yes, you can have pictures of us and with us, and yes, you can post them on your blog, I don't mind, but please mention there that we are just taking a day off from our duties to the Mikage Shrine," Kagome said kindly to the girls. "I'm the head priestess there, my name is Higurashi Kagome. This is Tomoe-kun, and he's my shrine helper."

"Mikage Shrine," the girl in classic lolita repeated as she made notes on a little pad of paper she'd pulled from her handbag. "I don't know that one," she admitted.

Kagome smiled. "The Mikage Shrine is a shrine for a kami of the land who specialises in match-making," she said with a wink to the girls. "We're a bit out of the way, so we haven't had a lot of visitors lately, but hopefully that will change?"

As she had known they would (because she had really a lot of experience with teenage girls) they squealed happily.

Then it was picture after picture after picture for the next five minutes before they could continue on their way.

"What... what just happened?" Tomoe asked. "And why did I just endure... whatever that was?"

"What that was, Tomoe-kun, was promotion for the Mikage Shrine," Kagome explained with an easy smile as they walked. "Those girls will soon be patrons of the shrine, mark my words. They'll also tell their friends about the shrine, they'll write about meeting us, and about the shrine, on their blogs – a blog is like a diary or journal, only its accessible to people all over the world to read. So you see? Getting out of the shrine now and then isn't the disaster you seem to imagine," she teased gently.

Tomoe blinked as he thought about that.

"We will get more visitors to the shrine by going out?" he queried. "You do know that the lack of worshippers to the shrine is neither new, nor your responsibility, don't you?"

"I do. But getting worshippers to the shrine is hardly a difficulty if you know how. Like this. Just by going out to popular places on the weekend now and then," Kagome explained. "By telling people who want pictures who we are and where we are from. They'll know a little more about the shrine, and they'll be interested to come and see the place. It won't be an instant boom or anything, but the number of people who come will go up, just a little. Now, come along. The first roller coaster is this way."

When they reached it, Tomoe stared up at the ride in wonderment.

"Fascinating," he breathed as the coaches rattled past and great speeds, the humans on board screaming with fright and delight in equal measure. "It looks like fun..."

Kagome smiled. "Thought you'd think that," she agreed. "The line to get on is just over here."

~oOo~

They laughed and screamed with joy the whole ride through, and Kagome happily pointed where, a few coaches down from them, Kurama and Kei were helping a shaky Ami and Nanami from their seats on the ride as well.

That got another laugh from Tomoe.

"The girls will be headed to the bathrooms to fix their hair now," Kagome noted, amused as she watched them go. "Except for Ami, whose hair is too short for it to be a problem."

"Kagome..." Tomoe said softly.

"Hm?"

"Your hair is also in disarray," he pointed out.

Kagome smiled. "Yeah, I'll bet," she agreed. "While you're a lucky yokai with permanently perfect hair, even if it's longer than mine. But... do you want to ride again?" she offered.

Tomoe laughed. "Yes, I would enjoy that. Then, after, would you allow me to fix your hair for you?"

Kagome nodded, and they got back in line for a second ride on the roller coaster.

When they got off, they found a park bench and Kagome pulled the tie out of her hair that had been holding it back in the almost traditional miko style she'd fashioned. That it made her look like Kikyo was no longer something she had any problem with. After all, InuYasha was no longer around to make the comparison. Besides, she had it braided, rather than hanging down in just a loose tail after the tie at the base of her neck.

Two rides on the roller coaster though, had made a complete mess of the style.

"Please hold still," Tomoe requested as he carefully released all of Kagome's hair and smoothed it though his fingers, coming it with his claws. "The wind from the ride seems to have put in a couple of tangles."

"And I'll bet you don't have a single snarl," Kagome teased him right back. "Well, I'm determined to comb your hair tonight when we get back to the shrine anyway."

Tomoe chuckled softly. "As my lady wishes," he assented with a smile. "There, I'm done."

Kagome blinked in surprise. "But I'm still holding both of my hair ties," she objected softly.

"I used a hair-stick," Tomoe explained. "It looks perfect."

"Where, when, and why did you ever get a hair-stick?" Kagome questioned, turning to look at him as she did so. "And of equal importance, will the style hold up to the next roller coaster ride? There's more than one in this park, after all."

"It will," Tomoe said, declining to answer all but the last question.

"Tomoe-kun," Kagome scolded lightly. "Answer me please."

"I bought it for you in the land over yonder," Tomoe admitted. "The place where most demons these days live, if they can't blend in with the humans. It didn't seem like you'd ever wear it though, since you so rarely put your hair up..."

"And yet you carried it with you today," Kagome noted softly as she reached back to carefully feel the stick. "Well, thank you Tomoe."

~oOo~

"Oh my gosh, it's Kurama!" the cry went up as they entered the restaurant for dinner.

"Who's that with him?"

"Probably other celebrities, though I don't recognise any of them..."

"They're all so gorgeous!"

"Especially the couple in the traditional clothing... Wow!"

And of course, Kurama had been at the amusement park all day, so word had reached those personages in the media who trailed celebrities and pop-stars.

"So Kurama-sama," the media woman who found them asked, microphone in hand and her cameraman behind her. "Who are all these beautiful people you're here with today?"

"These lovely ladies are some friends of mine from school," Kurama presented, with a wave. "May I present Kei, Ami, and Nanami. Nanami was the first to look past my status as a pop-star and actually see me. Through her, I came to know Ami, and then Kei as well."

"And the lady and gentleman behind you?" the reporter pressed.

"I am the miko of the Mikage Shrine," Kagome presented herself. "My name is Higurashi Kagome. I was formerly a teacher at several of the high schools in this area before I took over the Mikage Shrine. This," she said, with a simple gesture to Tomoe, "is my chief assistant around the Mikage Shrine, Tomoe. We're here with these four today as chaperones, because Nanami-chan is my ward. She sometimes helps out around the Mikage Shrine as well," Kagome explained pleasantly.

"May I ask, what sort of shrine is the Mikage Shrine?" the reporter asked curiously. "I don't think I've heard of it before."

"The Mikage Shrine has a long history with a kami of match-making, though we also have many talismans for other matters," Tomoe supplied softly when Kagome gave him a nudge to answer that one, rather than her.

"It was unfortunately left to disrepair for some time, but it has been cleansed and repaired, and I hope to revive some of the seasonal festivals there soon," Kagome added.

"Are you by any chance a worshipper at Mikage Shrine, Kurama-sama?" the reporter asked hopefully.

"I'm afraid that shrines aren't really the places for fallen angels like myself," Kurama deferred, not giving an outright answer.

"Kurama-san has never visited the Mikage Shrine," Kagome stated, a smile still on her face. "He hardly needs help from a place where people go to ask for help with love, after all."

"Of course," the reporter agreed quickly.

"If you will excuse us, but I think all of our little party would like to be able take our meal now," Tomoe requested of the reporter.

"Oh... of course, I'm so sorry," the reporter agreed with a blush, and ushered her cameraman away.

~oOo~

"Did you really mean what you said about having a festival at the shrine?" Nanami asked as they piled into one of the cars of the ferris wheel after their meal.

"I did," Kagome confirmed freely. "I've been working my way through all the paperwork required for holding festivals for some time. Just about since we moved there, actually. Some of it's just slow going. Permits for things and sourcing needed materials mostly. Then of course there was waiting for a chance to get the shrine a bit more popular."

"Like you did today," Kurama noted, just a touch sourly. "Using me."

Kagome giggled. "Oh, don't take it so hard Kurama-san. We've been approached by people all day asking for pictures, and people around the park were talking about us, because we were here in formal kimono, as much as they were talking about you visiting."

"Can... can we do anything to help with the festival?" Ami asked shyly, hopefully. "When do you think it will be?"

"At this time of year... an Autumn Festival," Kagome said with an easy shrug. "Or one to welcome in the winter... It's a shame we missed the chance to hold an Obon Festival this year though, not that we've really got anywhere to hold Toro Nagashi... And not that it's really the right sort of festival for the Mikage Shrine..."

Kagome shook her head to clear it of the nostalgic, sentimental thoughts that were cloying her mind – reminding her of the time she'd been to Obon with her friends in the Sengoku.

"If you want to help, then of course you can. You could pass out flyers, or..." Kagome teased, and waited for the girls to all lean forward eagerly, waiting for what would come next. They were very obliging. "If you want to get really involved, you could play instruments or I could teach you one of the dances that shrine maidens often perform at festivals."

Stars lit up the eyes of each of the three girls.

"Like... the Kagura Dance?" Tomoe asked, a touch hesitant.

Kagome shrugged. "Sure," she agreed. "Why not? I mean, it's not the easiest dance, but there's plenty of time to learn it," she looked back to the girls. "That is, if you want to."

"Rocking the traditional robes and being the centre of attention? Yeah!" Kei enthused eagerly.

"Learning a dance sounds like fun," Ami agreed with a happy giggle.

Nanami shook her head. "Sure," she said. "Count me in."

"Good," Kagome said happily. "Maybe now people will stop thinking Nanami-chan and I are ghosts of women who died tragically at the shrine."

"They... what?" Nanami asked, shocked. To the point of horrified and insulted, in fact.

Kagome shrugged. "It's been run down for twenty years. Long enough for a whole lot of people to forget the true history of the place," she explained easily. "I think the interview with the reporter, impromptu though it was, will put most of those rumours to rest."

~oOo~

Kagome had been more focused on making sure that the grounds and the shine itself were restored to their former glory. Or something exceeding that, as she'd never seen Mikage Shrine in its hay-day. There was also the distracting issues of Nanami's snake suitor, the visiting thunder goddess, finding Ryou's eye so that they could safely take a day off to the beach, and other such things...

All of which meant that Kagome hadn't quite gotten around to the task of cleaning the store-house just yet.

A task that, she knew from experience cleaning the store-house back at the Higurashi Shrine, could be rather daunting and difficult.

As soon as she opened the doors to this store-house, she knew it was worse than the one at her old home. She could feel the captured evil in some of the objects that were stored here.

"What kind of half-assed kami was Mikage, if he couldn't purify this thing to dust?" Kagome grumbled to herself as she poked a chest covered in seals with one of her sacred arrows – the only way she could actually reach the damn thing until she came back with a ladder.

Upon opening the store-house's doors, she had promptly closed them again and gone to fetch her weapons. No way was she facing whatever Mikage had left in there unarmed. She had experience with that kind of stupid, and these days she knew better.

"What are you doing?" Tomoe's voice came from behind her.

"Getting some cleaning in before the girls come for their dance lessons in the afternoon," Kagome answered. "Hey, gimme a boost? I wanna get this down and purified before the seals on it completely rot through."

Tomoe sighed, but did as he was instructed, and lifted Kagome up by her waist so that she could reach the chest in question. Once she had it in her arms, he set her down, and once she was down, Kagome took the chest outside to better examine it.

Onikiri and Kotetsu floated over to see what was going on as well.

"Alright, spell it out for someone who wasn't there at the time," Kagome requested of them. "What, exactly, did Mikage seal in here? Its aura feels... very leggy."

"That is the chest where Lord Mikage sealed the remains of Tsuchigumo," Kotetsu supplied, a hint of nervous tremor in his voice. "Lord Mikage was able to overcome it, but the remaining miasma was far too tainted. He could not completely exorcise it, so he decided to seal it away instead."

Kagome flinched a little. Gumo. Spider.

"I hate spiders," she complained, and pulled her bow off her shoulder and an arrow from the quiver at her back. "Really, _really_ hate spiders," she clarified, and charged the arrow with a bucket-load of combined miko and divine powers. "Open it," she ordered, poised to fire into the chest the instant the lid was raised.

Onikiri and Kotetsu both quailed and retreated fearfully.

Tomoe, bound by Kagome's words, did as instructed.

A dark miasma quickly began to rise from within the chest, but Kagome was ready for it. She released the arrow into the centre of the miasma, heard it strike the bottom of the box, and (though it hurt her eyes a bit) she watched as the bright glow of pink and gold burned away all of the thick, sickly black-green.

"Next box," Kagome said firmly as she slung her bow once more over her shoulder and headed back to the store-house.

Behind her, Onikiri and Kotetsu stared in wonder at the chest that now held an arrow that was _still_ glowing with power, even when its task was done and all of the miasma of Tsuchigumo had been purified into nothing.


	7. Chapter 7

"Before we begin the dance lesson, I have a pile of flyers for each of you to hand out to people when you have time," Kagome said. "The best targets to give these to are high school girls and children. Girls bring boyfriends or their whole friendship groups, occasionally both. Children drag along parents, older siblings if they have them, and sometimes grandparents."

Kei, Ami and Nanami all obediently collected up their piles of flyers for handing out, and carefully set them in their school bags.

"Now, the way this lesson will work is: you will follow my movements, and Tomoe will correct any of you if you make a mistake. We will use this mirror -" actually, it was a regular wall with a white talisman that said 'mirror' on it. Quite effective, actually. "- so that you can see what my hands are doing, as I will have my back to you. This way, you'll definitely be able to see if you're doing things the right or wrong way."

"I'm mostly here to make sure arms don't go too high, or are left too low, and steps are the appropriate length," Tomoe explained. "And to beat the drum," he added with a gesture to the small drum that he wore on a strap that crossed his chest.

"Kei-chan, two steps to my left, Ami-chan, the same distance to my right, Nanami-chan, two steps behind and just enough to my left that you can see yourself in the mirror, please," Kagome instructed. "This is also the formation we will take when we perform it."

"Hai, Kagome-sensei!" the girls cheered eagerly.

Then the dancing lessons began.

~oOo~

The day chosen for the festival was less than a week away. According to Kagome's instructions, Tomoe had taken Nanami and her two friends across Tokyo to the Higurashi Shrine for suitable miko garb to dance in. Kagome had gone on a bit of a sewing spree when she realised that she was the only one in her house who remembered her adventures in the past – and none of the kimono she'd occasionally come through the well wearing were in her wardrobe any more. Even if she never wore them, she'd wanted their physical presence there.

Then she'd started finding fabrics she'd like better, and made kimono for herself that she _did_ wear, and then... well, she had little else in her wardrobe now, though the old miko robes had been left behind in her room at Higurashi Shrine – and she knew her mother. Those kimono would be perfectly cared for.

Kagome herself was carefully cleaning the robe that _she_ would be wearing for the Kagura Dance. One that was of the Mikage Shrine, and a very different sort to the plain miko robes the other girls would be wearing. Much more elaborate, and really, when all the layers were piled on... well, the top one at least made it looked more like something that belonged to the traditions of the continent, than of Nippon.

Still, Tomoe had presented it to her humbly, and asked if she would wear it for the dance. She had agreed instantly. It was a lovely thing.

"Mikage," she called once she had finished hanging up the many layers of the robe to dry. "I know you're there. I can sense your presence. You and your companion. Tomoe is away from the shrine right now, and even Onikiri and Kotetsu are out."

The wisps had gone with a few letters from her to various demons she knew, inviting them to the Mikage Shrine and the festival. She didn't expect a whole lot of positive answers, but it was the inviting them that counted with many of them.

"Would you care for tea?" she invited.

Mikage, shrouded in fedora and trench coat just as he had been the night Kagome met him, dropped from a tree branch lightly, drifting down like a dry leaf on a day there was no breeze to buffet it as it fell. The other was dressed in a pink jump-suit and had a boa wrapped around his neck.

"Ah, you," Kagome recognised. "I had not connected your energy with that of Mikage's until now. Have you enjoyed causing trouble... Otohiko?" she asked.

The still-floating kami in his pink jump-suit and white boa blinked. "I don't recall ever giving you my name," he said, clearly slightly confused at how she knew him.

"Narukami was very obliging," Kagome explained simply and gave her most gracious, laughing smile that said she'd caught someone with their hand in the cookie jar, but if they'd have just asked, she'd probably have given them one.

Probably.

"Thank you for the offer, but I will not stay for tea," Mikage declined politely, a smile on his face. "I just wanted to check on things." With one last smile and an approving nod, he transformed himself into a butterfly and fluttered away.

Otohiko, on the other hand, was still floating about, level with the canopy of the trees that surrounded the shrine.

"Well, I'm not going anywhere just yet," he said, and withdrew a little bottle from a pocket of his garish outfit. "You are about to hold a sacred festival at Mikage Shrine. I am here to make sure you are worthy. There will be a test to see if you are truly capable of carrying out the duties of a Land God," he declared, equal parts bland, careless, and extremely firm.

He uncorked the bottle, and a little miasma floated up out of it. He pressed a kiss to his index finger and blew the miasma away from himself – into the shrine.

"Exorcising this level of miasma should be no problem for a _true_ Land God," he said with a sly smile. "Let's see what you've got, little miss Kagome."

Kagome watched for a moment as the miasma expanded around the shrine. For just a few seconds, she let it grow. The second it started to cause damage to the Mikage Shrine, however, she unleashed her powers in an explosion of cleansing purity, wild and untamed and truly powerful as it overtook everything.

It was just as well that only she and Otohiko were present. Tomoe and the wisps would have been obliterated if they were present when she did that. The miasma never stood a chance.

Eyes glowing with power, Kagome looked up at the kami floating above her. His boa singed and his hair smoking from the incredible blast of power she had unleashed upon the area.

"Are you satisfied _now_ , Otohiko?" she demanded harshly, and herself began to rise off the ground as her power formed a glowing halo around her. "I may have been born a ningen, but you are still five-hundred years too late to treat me so much like a child."

Otohiko looked at her in confusion. "Who are you, Higurashi Kagome?" he asked, stunned.

"I am exactly who I am. I am Higurashi Kagome, Miko of the Shikon no Tama, and now Lady Goddess of the Land, Kami of the Mikage Shrine," she proclaimed.

"You are also the one I choose as my sister," a familiar voice said.

"And the one I choose as my mother," another, less familiar voice rejoined, though only one person had ever called her mother.

Kagome looked down from Otohiko, and so didn't see him take his leave.

"Sesshoumaru," she recognised the familiar demon. The unfamiliar demon though... "Shippo," she realised, and the glow faded from her eyes. She drifted once more to the ground, tears of joy in her eyes. "You've grown."

The fox grinned. "So have you Momma," he said. "A kami now?"

Kagome laughed and launched herself at him, arms going around his sides and her face pressed quickly into the golden-brown fur vest he was wearing.

"My little Shippo," she wept softly. "I missed you so much."

"What is going on here?" another voice demanded. "Unhand my lady and mistress!"

"Tomoe, stop," Kagome said, and her words were enough even if they were softly spoken. "This is my son who I have not seen for ten and five-hundred years."

"What does that mean?" Tomoe questioned unhappily.

"It means, fox, that my little sister has not seen her son for far too long," Sesshoumaru explained, and far more calmly than Kagome might have expected.

"Tomoe, where are the girls?" Kagome asked as she finally stepped back from her tight embrace with Shippo.

"Shopping," he answered. "Your mother gave them all some money so that they could buy their own tabi, as she recognised we had both forgotten that little detail. Nanami said they would do some window-shopping as well, and I needn't act as their minder all afternoon."

Kagome nodded, satisfied. "Well then, why don't we all go inside and have some tea?" she offered with a smile. "Sesshoumaru, do you still like ginseng?"

"Hn."

Kagome couldn't help the small fit of giggles that escaped her at that old, familiar response from someone she had not seen in far too long.

~oOo~

She hadn't taken the time to really notice before, but now, Kagome realised that Shippo wasn't the only one to have gotten older. Of course, Sesshoumaru had lived through the intervening five-hundred years as well, but she hadn't registered at first that he had actually aged. He must have been coming towards the end of his last 'youthful' century when she had first met him. Where in the Sengoku, he had looked like someone in either their late teens or early twenties, he now looked more similar to a ningen in their late thirties, early forties.

He had apparently now reached the approximate age his great and terrible father had, when he perished to save Izayoi.

No way was Kagome going to mention _that_ though.

"So, when exactly did you decide I was your sister?" she asked as she set out the tea.

Sesshoumaru snorted softly. "When this Sesshoumaru witnessed you giving Rin 'the talk'," he answered frankly.

"That was before you brought her to the village," Kagome breathed, surprised by the revelation. Rin, poor girl, had been an early bloomer.

Sesshoumaru nodded silently.

"Could someone please tell me what these two yokai are doing here?" Tomoe requested through grit teeth, his hackles raised.

"Momma sent us invitations to come to the Autumn Festival here in a few days," Shippo answered with a smile. "We just decided to come early and check on her."

"Tomoe, relax, please. Shippo and Sesshoumaru are family to me," Kagome soothed.

"We are encroaching on his territory, miko," Sesshoumaru stated frankly. "It is natural he would be uncomfortable with our presence."

"And foxes are always very jealous and possessive of any beautiful thing that is theirs in some way," Shippo added with a smile. "Heck, I'd be possessive and jealous of sharing you too, but you taught me that's not the right way to treat people, and my mate keeps me in check the rest of the time."

"I haven't been so long without yokai company that I've forgotten that sort of thing," Kagome insisted with a pout. "Tomoe, come sit by me," she ordered softly.

Tomoe moved away from the corner of the room where he had been hovering and sat down beside his lady, his back stiff.

Kagome took his face in her hands and pressed a firm kiss to his lips.

"Sesshoumaru is my handsome and bossy big brother, Shippo is my adorable but sometimes demanding son, and they have lives of their own outside of me," Kagome said when she pulled back and locked her eyes with his. "You are my familiar and constant companion, and have no reason to feel threatened by their relationships to me."

"Indeed," Sesshoumaru confirmed. "This Sesshoumaru will only be able to visit this shrine very occasionally, and the kit is no more able to leave his responsibilities whenever he pleases."

Kagome sighed. "You had a rare ten minutes when you could come and tell me that you _can't_ come to the festival, am I right?" she guessed sadly. "I bet you're very busy these days."

"Well, Sesshoumaru is Inu no Taisho and Lord of the West, but he's also CEO of a big international company," Shippo explained. "And I'm a father of twenty," he added with a cheeky grin.

"Twenty?!" Kagome yelped.

Shippo laughed. "It's been five-hundred years, Momma," he reminded her happily. "And Souten is very fertile."

"Souten... that little thunder demon girl?" Kagome queried, checking her memory.

Shippo nodded with a blush.

"Your kit is also personal assistant to this Sesshoumaru," the daiyokai added blandly, "and as busy as he is usually kept, this Sesshoumaru has granted him time off to attend your festival."

"Souten and I will bring along the youngest three at least," Shippo promised. "The rest have all moved out of home and are in different countries around the world, working for Sesshoumaru as well. They might be able to come back for the weekend though."

Kagome blinked in surprise, and turned a questioning gaze to Sesshoumaru.

Sesshoumaru shrugged. "This Sesshoumaru has no mate, and since the death of Rin four-hundred and fifty years ago, none to call an heir of any sort. The fox and his family will inherit upon my eventual passing, though that day is still long in coming," he explained, only to narrow his eyes at Kagome. "That is, unless _you_ breed," he corrected.

Kagome rolled her eyes. "Yeah, right, and just who would I do that with?" she demanded wryly.

Sesshoumaru's golden gaze shifted from her face to that of the white fox by her side.

"I will never allow myself to fall in love with a ningen," Tomoe objected, though there was a slight hint of a pink glow about his cheeks.

"Momma isn't exactly a ningen," Shippo pointed out with a cheeky, knowing grin.

"Well, thank you for your approval in the matter," Kagome said firmly, but with clear dismissal in her tone. "But maybe I learned my lesson about falling in love with yokai?" she pointed out.

Sesshoumaru shrugged silently, though there was a knowing glint hidden in his golden eyes. All the same, the subject was dropped.

"So... What exactly happened after I left?" Kagome asked.

~oOo~

The festival was a success in every sense. People came, yokai came, even a couple of kami came to check out the festivities. Money was spent and respects were paid by all. The Kagura Dance was a hit, and at the end of the night the only merchandise still around (because Kagome had managed to get a lot of stalls, human and yokai both, to come and set up) was the kind that was broken, had been trodden underfoot, or was the last refuse that hadn't made it to a rubbish bin.

And even then, there wasn't very much. A thorough sweeping, and the Mikage Shrine was pristine once more.

At last, the shrine was peaceful again.

Nanami, exhausted from the fun (and the dancing) had fallen into bed as soon as she was released from sweeping duty.

Onikiri and Kotetsu were kindly tidying up the few things in the kitchen that had been used to make a last evening meal.

Kagome sat on the porch beside Tomoe and watched the moon.

"So, what did you think?" Kagome asked softly.

"I had no idea you knew so many yokai," Tomoe quipped dryly.

Kagome giggled. As well as Sesshoumaru (and his mother, which had certainly surprised Kagome), Shippo, Souten and all their children, Kirara had been brought along. Kouga and Ayame had come to the festival with _their_ extensive brood as well, and of course Ginta and Hakkaku, to help mind them all. Kagome had been very glad that Ayame was keeping her man on a short leash.

Shuran, Shunran, and Toran of the Panther Devas had all paid visit and their respects. Kagome had been surprised to see them at first, and then so, _so_ surprised when she saw Toran flirting with Sesshoumaru. Not only that, but he'd actually flirted back. But it seemed to be something completely platonic despite the fast-flying innuendos.

Hachi was still kicking around, though the tanuki was really getting on in years. He looked as old as Myouga had done when Kagome met the flea demon. Said flea was, apparently, no longer among the living. Or he was keeping a very, _very_ low profile if he was. Somehow Totosai was holding on though. Completely senile, but he'd come along to the festival all the same. With a babysitter in the form of one of Jakken's descendants.

Apparently imps like Jakken weren't very long lived.

The 'treasure' brothers had all come along, each with their mates and their youngest offspring, so that was even more kitsune about the Mikage Shrine. Another young one to attend, now all grown up, was Kanta. He also brought his mate, his offspring, and also his father. Bunza and his family attended, and so did many hanyou that were very much aged from when Kagome had last seen them: Shiori, Shion, Asagi, Ai, Moegi, and the twins Roku and Dai. All so very much older.

Ryou the Dragon King and his lovely wife Kamehime attended with an entourage, as did Himemiko and even Kurama – though his following was mostly ningen women, rather than his fellow tengu.

And then there were those that were under the protectorate of the Mikage Shrine, who Kagome had never met, but had come to pay their respects and witness the Kagura Dance.

Those who were able to perform transformation magic were busy that night, making sure that none of the ningen suspected anything truly supernatural.

"Well, now you know," she answered him. "But that wasn't really what I was asking about," she admitted. "You're a perfectionist, Tomoe. How was the dance?"

"Nanami, Kei and Ami all did very well," Tomoe allowed. "You can be proud of them, and you should be proud of yourself also. You were an excellent teacher to them."

Kagome smiled, content. "I'm glad," she said.

Tomoe stood. "I think I will fetch us some sake," he offered. "The moon is full, and it is the perfect night for drinking sake."

Kagome nodded. "Yes," she agreed. "That sounds nice."

Tomoe wasn't gone long, and returned with two red sake dishes and a small jug of warm sake for them to share.

Kagome took one dish for herself, and watched Tomoe pour as she held it up for him.

"It was beautiful," Tomoe said once he had finished pouring for them both and had taken his place, sitting at Kagome's side once more.

"Huh?"

"The Kagura Dance," Tomoe clarified with the finest hint of a blush about his cheeks, though it faded quickly as he continued, which meant it could not be credited to the sake. "Watching you perform the Kagura Dance so perfectly, in those robes and with your power lending a glowing radiance to you... it was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen."

"You don't have to say things that aren't true," Kagome said softly as she swirled the sake in her cup. "I'm sure you've seen lots of things that were more beautiful than me dancing."

"Nothing," Tomoe insisted. The single word softly spoken, yet earnestly delivered. "Nothing at all. Kagome... may I... re-seal the familiar contract?" he asked hopefully.

For a while, Kagome was silent, but then... "No," she answered.

Tomoe's ears fell flat against his head.

"But, if you desire it," she continued, herself now cautious and hesitant, "you may kiss me."

Tomoe's ears shot up once more, and a light came to his violet eyes.

"It is from the heart," he swore to her.

Kagome nodded, and met him half-way as he leaned in towards her. Even as she sighed at the feeling of Tomoe beginning to nibble on her lower lip, and even as she freely gave him access, she knew that, some day, one or both of them would regret beginning this.

Until that day came though, she intended to enjoy what was forming between herself and Tomoe as much as she could.

~The End~


End file.
